Facility along with new border fence, and crackdown on employers aimed to curb flood of migrants
Israel’s Cabinet is expected to decide to build a massive detention facility to house some of the10,000 African migrants who have flooded into the country.
The discussion is set for Sunday and the Prime Minister’s Office said the facility was part of a multi-pronged effort to end the wave of Africans — some fleeing war, others in search of jobs –infiltrating into the country.
The session comes a week after Israel began construction of a formidable barrier along parts of the 250-kilometer-long (160-mile) border with the Egyptian Sinai and signals a firm attempt by the government to tread where no other Israeli government has done before in addressing the flood of Africans entering the country illegally.
“For the first time, we are working to formulate a comprehensive migration policy that will be anchored in Knesset legislation,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
“The phenomenon of infiltrators into Israel endangers the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel and burdens its social welfare services, health system, law enforcement authorities and local councils,” Netanyahu said.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said the goal was to reduce the economic incentives for infiltrators to come to Israel and thus reduce the flow into the country.
But, with a short term internment followed by a chance to earn enormous wages by African standards, it isn’t clear if the goal is achievable.
Israel’s Interior Minister Eli Yishai, head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, was one of the major proponents of preventing non-Jews from illegally entering the country in order to save Israel from what he called a “natural disaster.”
Reacting to criticism of his fear mongering policies, Yishai said last week that the reality in some parts of the country has become intolerable.
“I urge those who think I have horns to visit the poor neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv, neighborhoods that have been swarmed by infiltrators and are collapsing, places where women, children and the elderly are afraid to go out at night … I’d like to send 30 or 40 infiltrators to their neighborhoods and here what they have to say afterwards,” he said.
“I am more sensitive and more merciful than all those who speak against me,” Yishai added. “If we don’t practice a clear, tough and decisive policy, in 20 or 30 years, the country will be overrun by infiltrators harming the demographic character of the country.”
The exact number of Africa migrants is not known. Estimates put it at about 31,000 with over half coming from Eritrea, 30% from Sudan and the remainder from across the continent.
A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said the proposed center would be “open” and will provide inmates with basic needs such as lodging, food, drink and health care.
Once a decision was reached, it was expected be operational within six months. The camp would house those who would be caught attempting to slip into the country and not for the tens of thousand already inside.
Last year, there was a sharp increase in the number of infiltrators, with further increases in recent months. In 2009, an average of approximately 300 infiltrators entered Israel per month. The monthly average for 2010 currently stands at approximately 1,200, with almost 1,300 in November so far, the prime minister’s office said.
But military commanders said they saw even larger numbers. Lt.-Col. Nir Harpaz, commander of a battalion patrolling the border, told The Media Line his soldiers on the lookout for armed terrorists were putting themselves in danger when confronting the bands of infiltrators.
“You don’t open fire at these guys. You don’t shoot them. That is forbidden. It’s true that they are violating Israel’s sovereignty and crossing over but you aren’t going to be shooting at someone who is only coming to look for a job,” Harpaz said.
“The problem is that terrorists have tried to hitch a ride on these foreigners. They come in 20- 30, two terrorists can be disguised in this group and then try to attack themselves on my soldiers,” Harpaz said. “They understand that if they are caught they will be put in a detention center where it will be crowded but after a month they will get released and then they’ll find a job. The government has to solve this.”
After a short detention, the illegal aliens, most of them fleeing forced conscription in Eritrea, or the war in Sudan, are dumped in the streets of Tel Aviv where they live in shelters or eke out a living doing menial labor. Refugees speak of harrowing journeys on their way to Israel. They pay about $2,000 to Bedouin guides to sneak them over the border.
Israel has already issued instructions to its Population, Immigration and Borders Authority (PIBA) to start cracking down on Israelis who hire the illegal migrants. PIBA officials have reportedly balked at carrying out the orders until a facility providing basic needs to the Africans was available.
According to the proposal, the establishment of the center will facilitate enforcement against those who employ infiltrators without work permits. Israel was also seeking ways to rid the country of the tens of thousands of illegal African workers, including talks with other countries who would agree to take them.
Yohannes Bayu, himself a recognized political refugee from Ethiopia, has set up the African Refugee Development Center to help the refugees. He urged the government to set up a proper procedure to decide who is a political refugee and who was just looking for work. He said the fence would not solve the issue.
“Even if there will be a fence out there and someone’s life is in danger outside of their borders Israel has to protect those people. Those who are asking for asylum are saying ‘save me. I am dying.’ Even if there is a wall there has to be a mechanism to let these people be saved. That is what international law says,” Bayu told The Media Line.
Attorney Anat Ben-Dor, director of the Refugee Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University, said that because of its history, Israel is obligated to extend its hand to help the refugees.
“I think Israel as a Jewish country has a heritage and maybe some sort of a duty, derived straight from Jewish values to provide sanctuary to people who flee persecution. And I would like this country to fulfill its role as a Jewish and as a democratic state and be a safe haven to people who suffer persecution,” Ben-Dor told The Media Line.
The flood of Africans began as a trickle in 2005 and were mainly refugees fleeing the war in Darfur, Sudan. The previous prime minister, Ehud Olmert, agreed after years of indecision, to grant political asylum to about 500 refugees. But the government has been stingy ever since with only a few individuals being given asylum status despite over 20,000 requests.