Israel’s security establishment is enlisting asylum seekers from Africa to fight in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and in return offers them assistance in obtaining permanent status in Israel, according to a Sunday report in Haaretz. The report cites security sources who say this is being done in an orderly manner and supervised by the legal counsel of the security system.
The Haaretz report notes: “About 30,000 asylum seekers from Africa live in Israel, most of them young men. About 3,500 of them are Sudanese with a temporary status that they received from the court in the absence of a decision on their asylum applications. Three asylum seekers were murdered in the October 7 attack. After that, many of them volunteered in agricultural and home front positions, and some asked to enlist in the IDF. At the same time, the security system realized that it could take advantage of the desire of the asylum seekers to attain permanent status and rely on them.”
It should be noted that the US Army has recently expanded a program that encouraged immigrants with certain language and medical skills to enlist by offering them a fast track to US citizenship. The Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, a.k.a. MAVNI, absorbs as many as 5,000 recruits.
MAVNI is open to young immigrants who are in the US illegally and who received a deportation reprieve. Many of the MAVNI soldiers speak Mandarin, Urdu, and Arabic, which is very useful to the Army overseas. They tend to be older than American recruits, averaging about 26 years of age, and they are more likely to have attended college, according to Army data.
According to Haaretz, Israel’s Interior Ministry examined the possibility of drafting the second generation of asylum seekers, who were educated in the Israeli school system. In the past, the Israeli government gave permanent status to children of foreign workers and some of them served in the IDF.
According to a Ynet February report, the army urgently needs no less than 7,000 additional soldiers, about half of them in combat roles. This number is in addition to the fighters who are already slated to enlist in the upcoming rounds this year. In addition, the army requires slots for another 7,500 officers and noncommissioned officers.
