Father Neuhaus: worsening situation facing African asylum seekers in Israel

(Vatican Radio)  There are around 50,000 mostly African asylum seekers in Israel of whom the vast majority come from Eritrea and they include many Christians. However, the Israeli authorities recently have detained more than two thousand African asylum seekers and deported them to a huge camp in the middle of the Negev desert.  Father David Neuhaus is the Patriarchal Vicar for the Hebrew-speaking Catholic community in Israel and ministers to these asylum seekers and migrant workers living in Israel. He spoke to Philippa Hitchen, our correspondent covering Pope Francis' visit to the Holy Land.  

 

Listen to the full interview with Father David Neuhaus: 

 

Father Neuhaus says there is a “hardening of language” and attitudes towards the asylum seekers present in Israel with “more and more racism” being displayed towards them.  A more recent and worrying development, he says, is that the Israeli security forces are picking up on the streets hundreds of young African men (asylum seekers) and they are being deported to a very big camp in the middle of the Negev desert.   He says although the men are not locked up in this camp, they are effectively trapped there in “appalling conditions” with “nothing to do” and as a result drug and alcohol abuse is rife amongst them.

Turning to Pope Francis’s visit to the Holy Land, Father Neuhaus says there is ”great excitement” among the Catholic asylum seekers and migrant workers because they are aware of the Pope’s concern for their plight. “They know very well that Pope Francis has a very big heart for migrants” and they want “to feel his embrace.” 

Father Neuhaus goes on to express his concern over the hostile activities of Jewish extremists in the last few years,  some of whom, he says, are “profoundly anti-Christian.” In addition to frequent graffiti attacks on Christian places of worship, he says there is also the violence of their language when talking about Christians whom they describe as “idolaters.”