MIDEAST: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says protests 'won't help' migrants opposing a new government policy of open-ended detention

Record ID: 348645

  • Title: MIDEAST: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says protests 'won't help' migrants opposing a new government policy of open-ended detention
  • Date: 6th January 2014
  • Summary: TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (JANUARY 06, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS ON BOARDWALK
  • Embargoed: 21st January 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE093RDL672H94CN6CM5PIERQ7
  • Story Text: Several thousand African migrants protested outside Western embassies in Tel Aviv on Monday (January 6), demanding freedom for compatriots jailed by Israel in a desert facility under a new open-ended detention law.
    "No more prison," chanted the crowd that packed a Mediterranean beachfront promenade across from the U.S. Embassy.
    Protesters also marched to the French, Italian, British, Canadian and German embassies to hand over letters appealing for international support against Israel's detention policy toward migrants it sees as illegal job-seekers.
    Three weeks ago, Israel's parliament approved the law permitting authorities to detain migrants without valid visas indefinitely. The measure has been condemned by critics as a violation of human rights.
    Some 60,000 migrants, largely from Eritrea and Sudan, have crossed into Israel across a once-porous border with Egypt since 2006, Israeli authorities say.
    Many say they want asylum and safe haven. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he views the presence of many of the Africans as a threat to Israel's Jewish social fabric.
    "Demonstrations won't help them," Netanyahu told lawmakers of his right-wing Likud party on Monday. "These aren't refugees, who we treat according to international norms. These are illegal infiltrators seeking work."
    An Israeli border fence has cut off the African influx from Egypt since 2012, but migrants who have already crossed can be sent to what the government describes as an open prison in Israel's southern desert.
    On Sunday, more than 10,000 Africans demonstrated outside Tel Aviv city hall on Sunday on behalf of what human rights groups said are more than 300 migrants arrested since the detention law went into effect.
    Dozens more have been summoned for detention, among them men with wives and children, rights activists and the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) said.
    The new detention facility resembles a half-way house. Detainees can leave but must report back three times a day, including at nightfall, and may be held without a time limit pending voluntary repatriation, implementation of deportation orders or resolution of their asylum requests.
    "What is happening now as a result of the new amendment is that they now identify asylum seekers particularly from these two countries Eritrea and Sudan and demand from them to take up residence in Holot. It is important to know at this stage I was saying before about the detention-like conditions that it's also important to understand is that there is no release from Holot so in effect it means indefinite detention," said Walpurga Englbrecht, the UNHCR representative in Israel.
    Englbrecht criticised Israel's official description of migrants as "infiltrators", saying most were refugees or deserved international protection. "If we look at the situation of the countries where these asylum seekers are coming from and looking also at the practice of how other countries deal with those asylum seekers where we find high recognition rates it is quite evident they are not infiltrators and they should be treated as asylum seekers, their claims should be assessed in a fair and transparent manner," she said.
    Israeli Interior Minister Gideon Saar rejected the allegations, telling Israel Army Radio on Monday the vast majority of migrants had come in search of jobs, not asylum.
    Netanyahu said Israel would pursue a policy of encouraging migrants to leave or find countries to accept them. He said 2,600 left in 2013.
    Hotline for Migrant Workers, an organisation that advocates for the Africans, accuses Israel of pressuring detainees to accept payouts and leave the country.
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