Sudanese refugees left outside Beersheba city hall
Fourteen women, children abandoned outside southern city's municipality building during the night. City already houses 150 refugees with no long-term solution in sight
The seven women and seven children told the student they were left outside the building during Monday night. Soon after that, several more refugees were found near a local police station.
"They were panicked… the women had no idea where they were and no idea where their husbands – who were apparently arrested – were," Michal Zvieli, who found the refugees, told Ynet.
Over the last few months Beersheba had seen dozens of refugees from Darfur come to the city after crossing the Israeli-Egyptian border.
Attempting to help, the Beersheba municipality decided - as a short-term solution - to put up 150 refugees in the city's hotels. They have now been there for a month.
"The city has spent over $72,000 trying to find housing solutions for these (150) refugees. We simply can't afford to help any others," said the city in a statement.
As for the 14 refugees found this morning, the Beersheba municipality said it would try to find a solution for them, but would probably transfer them to Ramat Aviv, as Pini Badash, mayor of nearby Omer, suggested.
