Three beheaded by Islamic State in Libya earlier deported from Israel

Three of those beheaded in Libya by IS had earlier lived in Israel where they sought refugee status before being deported.

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A recent video posted on line by the Islamic State shows the shooting and beheading of what were thought to be 30 Ethiopian Christians. However, three of the victims have been identified as Eritrean refugees who had earlier been seeking refugee status in Israel. Mesi Fashiya, who is a translator for The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, an Israel-based NGO that advocates for the approximately 46,000 refugees in Israel, identified three of the victims. Fashiya told the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that one of the victims was her cousin, whom she recognized by photos posted by IS on Facebook before the victims were killed.

Her cousin had been deported from Israel to Uganda or Rwanda but was not accepted and went on to Sudan and from there to Libya. The Israeli government will help refugees to leave voluntarily, by providing airline tickets and a grant that can be up to $3,500 per person. While this may seem a good deal it is meant to ensure that less people go through the process of seeking asylum. Hagar Shechter, who is head of public relations for Assaf an Israeli organization that provides legal assistance to refugees said: “During the past few years we see that government policy is becoming worse towards asylum seekers.” Refugees fear arbitrary detention as a means of pressuring the refugees to leave. She noted that the Israeli government has granted only 0.17 percent of refugee status requests. Assaf reports:47,000 refugees and asylum seekers live in Israel as of October 2014, of which 92 percent are from Eritrea or Sudan. They were forced to leave their homes and their countries to seek asylum in Israel due to persecution, civil wars, genocide and other horrors

Last year, Hagar notes the situation worsened when the Israeli government built Camp Holot located in the middle of the Negev government to house refugees: “Last year, the Israeli government built a detention camp to lock them up.About 2,000 people are imprisoned in this camp, placed in the middle of the desert, far from any public transport,” Fashiya noted that her cousin had been in the camp. The experience convinced him he should forget about seeking refugee status and he signed papers to leave without telling his relative. Fashiya said her cousin was hoping to reach Europe by boat. That too has become a very risky endeavor, with hundreds of migrants drowning before they reach Italy or the eastern islands of Greece. Many countries can always find funds to fight wars and terrorism but when it comes to humanitarian disasters such as this funds are limited and the will to at least help alleviate the problem is lacking. The situation is not helped by the backlash against immigrants in much of Europe.

Four brothers beheaded in Saudi Arabia for smuggling marijuana

Two sets of brothers were beheaded using swords in the city of Jajran in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Monday August 18th after being convicted of smuggling marijuana into the country according to the Saudi Interior Ministry.

The government news agency SPA identified the two sets of brothers as Hadi and Awad al-Motleg and Mufarraj and Ali al-Yami. The four were found guilty of having smuggled "a large quantity of hashish" into Saudi Arabia. Amnesty International claimed that there had been a "disturbing surge" in executions in Saudi Arabia of late with a total of 32 already this year and said:"The Saudi Arabian authorities must halt all executions". Amnesty also claimed that the conviction of the four was "reportedly on the basis of forced confessions extracted through torture".

 During the last two weeks there have been 17 beheadings a rate of more than one a day.The families of the executed men had been asking for help from Amnesty as the executions became imminent but were told by the Interior Ministry to stop trying to contact Amnesty. Amnesty representative Said Bouhmedouha called the recent increase in beheadings a deeply disturbing deterioration and said: "The authorities must act immediately to halt this cruel practice". Four days previous to this execution a Pakastani was beheaded also for drug trafficking.

 In Saudi Arabia a number of different crimes can be punished by death including rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery, and drug trafficking. There were 78 executions in the country last year. In August alone this year 19 people have been beheaded. Among those beheaded, Mohammed Al-Alawi was convicted for practicing sorcery.