For Malik Yosef, a Sudanese refugee from Darfur residing in Israel, running is the only activity that allows him to feel at peace, even when the world around him seems like it's falling apart. At age 14, once the genocide in Darfur had begun, Malik ceased to feel safe in his small village and moved to the big city in Sudan. He stayed there for a while, but as the situation worsened, even city life was not safe enough, and at age 16 he set off for Egypt with a plan to enter Israel.
Once he arrived in Egypt, he worked until he could afford to pay smugglers to take him to Israel. The smugglers took him and another 15 or so refugees close to the Israeli border at Sinai, where they hid out until nighttime, when the darkness made it safer for them to attempt to cross into Israeli territory. Once the time came, Malik and his group ran across the border as Egyptian soldiers shot at them. Everyone made it across safely except three members of the group—a mother and her two young children. Eight years later, Malik is still haunted by the thought of what happened to them.
A year after he entered Israel, Malik started running. Running, he discovered, allowed him to feel at peace and to forget about all he has been through. Even in 2017, when Malik was detained in Holot Detention Center for 6 months—as far as a person can be from freedom—running made him feel free. Today, Malik is studying fitness training at the Wingate Institute, turning his passion into a profession and learning how to translate his love for running into a skill he can teach others.
Malik is leading a team of Israelis and refugees who will run together in the Alley Race on October 4th and the Tel Aviv Night Run on October 30th. Malik is leading a training course to get the team ready for the run. On October 30th we will show the world that there are Israelis who not only stand with refugees, but who run alongside them! This run is a proud public act of solidarity to show the world that refugees and Israelis belong on the same team.
Mission
The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants exists to safeguard the rights of refugees, migrant workers, and victims of human trafficking. Through client services, legal action, and policy initiatives the Hotline works to create a just asylum system and a rights-based approach to migration law and policy.
Key achievements from the past five years
- Preventing the forced deportation of Congolese asylum seekers back to the Democratic Republic of Congo (March 2019)
- Preventing the forced deportation of Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers to Uganda and Rwanda (April 2018)
- Obtaining Refugee Status for the first Sudanese Darfuri asylum seeker in Israel (June 2016)
- The High Court's ruling on the 5th Anti-Infiltration Law, limiting detention time in Holot to a maximum of 12 months (August 2015)
- The High Court’s nullification of the 4th Anti-Infiltration Law – the law by which asylum seekers can be held in indefinite detention in Holot (September 2014)
