A case that illustrates that opacity of "Holot Summons" as well as the incredulous bureaucracy of the Immigration Authority and their detention policies:

        A case that illustrates that opacity of "Holot Summons" as well as the incredulous bureaucracy of the Immigration Authority and their detention policies:

"Y" was imprisoned for three years in Saharonim, because the Ministry of the Interior made a mistake and accidentally identified him as an Ethiopian.

While Eritrean and Sudanese citizens are eligible for group-protection and fall under Israel's non-removal policy (as well as the fact that the State openly admits that there is danger in refoulement of people to those countries), citizens of other countries may be imprisoned indefinitely if they do not have a valid visa and refuse to leave. Due to this "Y", who was wrongfully identified as Ethiopian was held in prison for three full years; 1,045 days of administrative detention because of a mistaken assertion. After a long bureaucratic struggle, the MOI finally recognized their mistake and recognized him as Eritrean, he was set free and received a permit to stay at the end of 2014.

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there- "Y" was recently shocked when he received a summons to Holot, to serve the maximum time there, even though he has already been detained by the government for three years. This is possible, because now that they have identified him as Eritrean, he is eligible to be sent to Holot.

Thanks to the appeal we filed, "Y's" summons to Holot is currently frozen, and will stay so for quite a long time. We will continue to fight for him, as the state has committed a grievous injustice and deprived him of his liberty for three years based on a mistake. We will fight to make sure he doesn’t spend any more time in the Israel Prison Service.

Here is "Y" with his case worker Ofer, who works to make sure he won't go to Holot.