Roundup of African migrants continues; 55 arrests made on Monday

Interior Minister Eli Yishai rejected reports on Monday that Israel would take in refugees from embattled Syria.

In an interview with Army Radio, Yishai, who has spoken out in favor of deporting African refugees from Israel, explained that “Israel cannot afford to flood the country with refugees and infiltrators.”

Yishai also said that although the Syrian asylum seekers are fleeing state-sanctioned massacres, and “the Jewish people are sensitive to every refugee… there is no end to this thing and we must preserve the Zionist enterprise and Israel’s Jewish majority.”

As yet, no Syrians have attempted to enter Israel.

Meanwhile, officers from the Population, Immigration and Borders Authority rounded up dozens of South Sudanese refugees, as operation “Returning Home” aimed at deporting Africans residing illegally in Israel, heated up.

Population and Immigration Authority sources told Ynet that 55 illegal foreign migrants have already been detained ahead of deportation, of which 45 are South Sudanese citizens, two are from Ghana, and the rest are from the Ivory Coast, Nigeria and the Philippines.

On Sunday, 22 migrants were detained by immigration police across the country, mostly in the south.

During the course of a discussion in the Internal Affairs Committee on Monday, MK Dov Henin (Hadash) said: “These people did not come here for fun, they are trying to survive. The Foreign Ministry tells us it is impossible to return them to Sudan or to Eritrea. It is impossible to give them jobs. What do you want to happen to them?”

MK Danny Danon (Likud), an advocate of deportation of the illegal African migrants, told the hearing: “We condemn the two-sided violence — infiltrator violence against citizens, and violence by citizens against infiltrators. However, saying that they must be deported from Israel is not incitement.”

The current detention operation began after a June 7 Jerusalem District Court ruling that the illegal migrants from South Sudan could be deported. The Population and Immigration Authority shortly thereafter announced that 1,500 migrants illegally in Israel would have one week to turn themselves in and leave the country, or be deported by force. (© 2012 THE TIMES OF ISRAEL 06/11/12)