Immigration and Borders Authority offers cash and ticket for South Sudanese who leave within a week

An emergency ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened Thursday and set out a four-part plan to solve the “grave problem” of African migrants in Israel.

Netanyahu met with Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, and representatives from the IDF, Israel Police, and Israeli Prison Services.

The prime minister’s “emergency plan for dealing with migrants” set “completion of the fence as quickly as possible and sealing the gaps where the fence is incomplete” as top priority. Thereafter, the government will construct detention facilities and expand existing ones to hold thousands more detainees.

Until the fence is fully constructed, Netanyahu said that migrants illegally crossing Israel’s borders must be transported directly to the detention facilities. A legal framework for punishing employers of illegal immigrants must also be established, he said.

Netanyahu added that Yishai would attend to the removal of illegal migrants and that Aharonovitch, aided by a detachment of Border Police, would deal with the arrest of migrant criminals in south Tel Aviv.

Later on Thursday the Immigration and Borders Authority announced that the 1,500 South Sudanese residing in Israel must leave the country within a week. Any who do within seven days will receive a government-funded ticket and monetary grant to facilitate their return.

Following a Jerusalem District Court ruling Thursday morning lifting a ban on the deportation of South Sudanese migrants, the authority said nothing bars the enforcement of the prohibition against employing or housing Sudanese migrants.

There are currently approximately 35,000 migrants from Eritrea living in Israel, and 15,000 from Sudan. Over the past month, tensions have been running particularly high between Israelis and illegal African migrants, resulting in large demonstrations and occasionally degenerating into violence, primarily in the Hatikvah neighborhood in south Tel Aviv. (© 2012 THE TIMES OF ISRAEL 06/07/12)