News
Israel: Parliament approves detention without charge for African migrants
A South Sudanese boy holds onto the arm of an Israeli aid worker as he boards a bus at the south Tel Aviv bus station to be delivered to Ben Gurion Airport, 17 June 2012, as Israel deports hundreds of African migrants. PHOTO/Jim Hollander/EPA
Israel’s parliament has moved to ensure African migrants who enter the country illegally can be held without charge, despite a Supreme Court ruling that had struck down a previous detention law.
Legislation approved late on Monday set a maximum detention period of 1 year for new illegal migrants, a change from a term of up to 3 years stipulated in a previous law annulled by the court in September.
But with a newly-built Israeli border fence effectively choking off what had been a stream of African migrants crossing from Egypt, the new law could also have an impact on some of the estimated 50,000 mainly Sudanese and Eritrean nationals already in the Jewish state.
The new regulations, which opponents predicted would also be challenged in the Supreme Court, enables authorities to send migrants, to what the government describes as “open facilities”.
Under the law, their detention would be open-ended, pending resolution of their asylum requests, implementation of deportation orders or voluntary repatriation.
More: Israel begins the deportation of African migrants
The first such complex, which can hold several hundred people, is due to begin operating this week in the southern Israeli desert.
