PHR-Israel: Solidarity with Migrants in San Francisco

[for immediate release]

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel
UPDATE
26 October 2003
PHR-Israel: Solidarity with Migrants in San Francisco

PHR-Israel expresses solidarity with those celebrating Immigrant Pride Day in San Francisco today and demands that migrants' rights be defended


Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) would like to express solidarity with the migrants in San Francisco who today are celebrating Immigrant Pride Day. It is every person's right to seek out the best possible life and flee persecution. These reasons and others have led millions worldwide to migrant from their native land to others. Migrants must be treated with respect and their human rights and labor rights shall not be violated.

In Israel, the new Deportation Police is terrorizing the migrant community. Their scare tactics are appalling, and they have even threatened children and whole families with detention and deportation.

While the community in San Francisco celebrates and protests its rights, we ask that the community here not be forgotten. We hope that together we can demand that all western countries, such as the United States, and non western countries such as Israel, sign and ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which entered into force this year.

PHR-Israel holds hands with the organizers of today's events in San Francisco in their demands for defense of Human and Civil Rights for immigrants, and that in certain cases governments should grant amnesty to undocumented migrants.


For more information please contact: Shabtai Gold, Public Outreach, +972-54-860630 (shabtai [at] phr.org.il), or Rami Adout, Director: Migrant Workers and Refugees Project, +972-67-322008.


"Israel: A Safe Haven?" the first comprehensive report and position paper on refugees and asylum seekers in Israel, is available in hardcopy form and from the PHR-Israel website:
http://www.phr.org.il/Phr/downloads/dl_161.pdf


PHR-Israel's report on the state of health of migrant workers in Israel, October 2002, entitled "Aggressively Passive":
http://www.phr.org.il/Phr/downloads/dl_144.rtf

Physicians for Human Rights–Israel (PHR–Israel) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded in 1988 and currently comprising some 800 members, with the aim of striving to promote medical human rights in Israel and in the territories under Israel’s effective control. The basic values of PHR–Israel are human dignity, protection of bodily and mental integrity, and promotion of the right to health and medical care.
Tel: 972 3 6873718
Fax: 972 3 687 3029
E-mail: mail [at] phr.org.il
http://www.phr.org.il



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