Netanyahu ready for 'stage 2' in expelling migrants
By <
http://www.jpost.com/Authors/AuthorPage.aspx?id=163> YONI DAYAN,
<
http://www.jpost.com/Authors/AuthorPage.aspx?id=34> BEN HARTMAN
12/28/2012 17:44
PM appoints new representative to oversee expulsion of migrants in Israel,
to begin after completion of fence next month.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday signaled he was ready to begin
repatriating African migrants, which he termed the "second stage" in the
effort to clear Israel of illegal infiltrators.
"We have succeeded in blocking the entry of infiltrators from Africa to
Israel," Netanyahu said at the start of a discussion he convened on the
issue. "After having faced the threat of the entry of hundreds of thousands,
this month, not one infiltrator entered Israel's cities."
The prime minister said that after workers complete construction of the the
security fence being built along Israel's southern border next month, Israel
will start working to send migrants already in Israel back to their home
countries. "Now we are moving on to the second stage, that of repatriating
the infiltrators who are already here."
Netanyahu appointed a special representative, Hagai Hadas, to oversee the
repatriation of "tens of thousands of infiltrators" to their countries of
origin. There are currently an estimated 60,000 migrants residing in Israel,
mostly originating from Sudan and Eritrea. Thousands of migrants are being
held in detention facilities in the South, with Israel's "infiltrator law"
enabling authorities to imprison without trial for up to three years anyone
who has entered the country illegally.
Though many politicians have campaigned heavily on the issue of repatriating
African migrants, the move has been largely hampered by legal caveats. On
Hanukkah, right-wing MKs Michael Ben-Ari and Arieh Eldad
<
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=295393> held a
candle-lighting ceremony in south Tel Aviv to issue a call to expel all
African migrants from Israel. They labeled the event "banishing the
darkness."
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI)
<
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=296138> issued a scathing
attack on the government policies pertaining to African migrants earlier
this month, charging that, inter alia, the State was refusing to examine
asylum requests and was instead treating all migrants as illegal.
Sigal Rozen, the public policy coordinator for the Hotline for Migrant
Workers said that she doesn't think that the move will happen and that is
mostly just a political statement made by Netanyahu ahead of the January
elections.
"We don't think it will happen because we know it's impossible and we also
don't think he'll stoop that low, to deport thousands of refugees back to
the countries they fled."
Rozen also took note of the timing of the message, which came on Christmas
Eve, saying that most of the Eritreans in Israel, who make up the majority
of the migrants in Israel, are Christian.
Rozen added "he's always saying stuff like this, this is not the first time.
We'll have to see if it's something more serious or just an attempt to win
votes from the far-right."
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Received on Fri Dec 28 2012 - 17:58:14 EST
