- Title: MIDDLE EAST: Israel allows in three African migrants from Egypt
- Date: 7th September 2012
- Summary: ISRAEL-EGYPT BORDER AREA, ISRAEL (SEPTEMBER 06, 2012) (REUTERS) ISRAELI MILITARY POLICE BLOCKING ROAD SOLDIERS BEHIND GATE DOCTOR ARAD, PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS-ISRAEL DELEGATION, TALKING TO SOLDIER MORE OF DELEGATION OF DOCTORS NEAR SECURITY FORCES ROAD BLOCK (SOUNDBITE) (English) DOCTOR ARAD, HEAD OF THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT IN JOSEPH TAL HOSPITAL IN EILAT, SAYING: "
- Embargoed: 22nd September 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Jerusalem, Israel
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Topics: International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVADPHICFC1Q96EEEEFEL0PFMNZP
- Story Text: Israel allowed entry for three Africans on Thursday (September 06), who had camped on its desert border with Egypt for almost a week, but said it will press on with its crackdown on illegal migrants. Israel had refused to allow doctors to cross its border fence with Egypt to examine 20 African migrants who camp at the border in the hope that they will be allowed entry into Israel.
. Israel on Thursday (September 07) allowed entry for three Africans, who had camped on its desert border with Egypt for almost a week, but said it will press on with its crackdown on illegal migrants.
A statement from Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said that two women and a child were to be allowed in and that the rest of the group they were with, about 17 other African migrants, were to turn back on their tracks.
"It is Israel's right to protect its borders. I am determined to stop the flood of infiltrators. The fence will be ready soon, it has already lowered the number of infiltrators by 90% and not one infiltrator reaches Israeli cities. We will also continue operations to return infiltrators to their countries of origin," Netanyahu said.
Israeli media said the group of 20 migrants were Eritrean and that they arrived at the guarded border last Thursday. Israel's military had provided them with food and water.
About 60,000 African migrants have entered unlawfully in the past few years through the porous Egyptian border and have alarmed Israel, which says they are mostly job-seekers who threaten the demographics in the Jewish state of 7.8 million.
To curb the influx of migrants, Israel has been building a fence along the 260 km (160 mile)-long frontier with the Egyptian Sinai and it is due to be completed by the end of 2012.
Humanitarian organisations in Israel say the migrants should be considered for asylum and some Israelis have been troubled that their country, founded by war refugees and immigrants, should be packing off foreigners en masse.
"We want simply to do, to execute a very basic human mission, to examine patients that are in potential need, probably in severe conditions for eight days that they are stuck between fences. I believe the issue of dehydration, starvation, morbidities, not mentioning everything that they passed along the way to the border. I think they should get some medical attention," said Doctor Arad, who arrived at the border area in southern Israel on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and was stopped by Israeli security forces.
The Israeli army said the area was a closed military zone.
Earlier on Thursday, Israel's high court in Jerusalem discussed a petition calling on Israel to allow the migrants to enter the Jewish state. The court postponed its ruling to next week, conflicting arguments were voiced outside the court room.
"They (the African migrants) can be arrested immediately but they cannot be neglected like this just because we built a fence. You can build a fence ten times high and ten times long but it doesn't change the legal status and the legal norms and the moral norms as well. So we ask the court to order the state to let them in and to save them, it's a matter of life or death," said Omer Shatz, the legal adviser representing the 'We are Refugees" Association which filed the petition.
Right wing activist, Baruch Marzel who attended the court discussion, criticised the petitioners.
"The hypocrites of the left that came here to court to ask for mercy on the enemy that's coming in in thousands, they want to destroy the state of Israel by bringing hundreds of thousands of people from Africa, from who knows where and they say they want to give them food. I never saw these leftists taking care of poor Jews, giving food to Jews that don't have what to eat. First take care of your brothers and sisters, but they don't feel part of the Jewish people," Marzel said.
Israel's current refusal to allow the Africans to cross from Egypt into its territory is part of a crackdown on migrants who walk across the porous frontier.
o camp at the border in the hope that they will be allowed entry into Israel - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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