JERUSALEM: Israel tightened its law on infiltrators on Tuesday to stem an increasing flow of African migrants crossing its porous Sinai Desert border from Egypt, drawing sharp criticism from refugee groups and activists.
Illegal migrants including asylum seekers now face up to three years’ imprisonment under the amended legislation which parliament approved in the early hours of on Tuesday.
Aid groups denounced the decision as an “immoral” response to refugees fleeing civil conflict, while one commentator called it a stain on the democracy of Israel, many of whose citizens themselves arrived as refugees after the Holocaust.
The measure “is destined to handle a situation of infiltrations along the southern border which many view as a plague”, said lawmaker Amnon Cohen of the religious Shas party.
It amends a 1954 law which defined infiltrators as armed guerrillas entering from Egypt to attack Israeli border towns.
Israel may now jail anyone illegally crossing the border for up to three years, up from the current 60 days, a parliamentary statement said. The amendment also entitles the authorities to seek jail terms for anyone who aids illegal infiltration.
A record number of migrants, largely from Sudan and Eritrea, have arrived in Israel in the past two years. Numbers have risen in the past few months, with government figures showing more than 2,000 arrivals in November. December’s figure is expected to approach 3,000.
Government figures from November show more than 51,000 illegal migrants in the country at that time, up from 33,000 for 2010. This does not include an additional 14,000 listed as foreign labourers who lack valid permits.
Aid groups see the latest influx as a result of the trouble in Libya having restricted access via that gateway to Europe, and unrest in Egypt perhaps spurring more refugees arriving there to try to cross the border into Israel.
Groups that help asylum seekers denounced the amendment. “Not only are these steps by the government immoral, they do not provide any solution to the issue of asylum seekers in Israel,” said Yael Marom, coordinator for a Tel Aviv-based aid group called ASSAF.
Moshe Negbi, an Israel Radio commentator on legal affairs, called the measure a “deep stain on our democracy”, adding that Israel, founded after the Nazi Holocaust in which six million Jews were killed and many others stranded as refugees, ought to be more helpful to other refugees.
Israeli cabinet secretary Zvi Hauser countered that the migrant influx was a strain on Israel’s society and social services whose infrastructure he saw as “at risk of collapse” unless steps were taken to stem the flow of arrivals.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government approved $167 million last month for a planned detention facility for illegal migrants and other measures to try to stem the influx.
Israel is also building a fence along its frontier with Egypt to try to block the migrants as well as prevent infiltrations by Islamist militants blamed for an attack in August in which eight Israelis and five Egyptians were killed. (UNI)