Illegal African Immigrants Protest Israel Detention
Nearly 200 African asylum seekers who entered Israel illegally demonstrated Tuesday in Jerusalem against being housed at a brand-new open facility they walked out of two days earlier.
The men had left the Holot facility in southern Israel on Sunday night and made their way to the snow-struck city on foot and by bus.
Bearing banners reading "we are refugees not criminals" and "walk for freedom and humanity," they marched from the prime minister's office to the nearby parliament, accompanied by dozens of Israeli human rights activists.
The demonstrators, who would be allowed to work and have social benefits if they held refugee status, accused the government of "racism."
"Many people are suffering from the racism of the right(-wing) government of Israel," Sudanese Walidin Sleiman told Agence France Presse.
Sleiman added that if Israel did not want to give them rights then they should be allowed to go somewhere else.
Michal Roisin, a lawmaker from the left-wing Meretz party who was present, said "as long as there is no place that can receive them -- they can't go back to their homelands -- we must ensure their rights."
And activist Moran Mekamel of the "Students for Refugees" group said "these Africans are political asylum seekers who came to seek refuge in Israel."
She demanded each case be examined to determine "whether they qualify as asylum seekers," adding that "the facility they've been kept in is nothing short of a prison."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament on Tuesday that "the infiltrators who were transferred to the special facility can be in it, or return to their countries."
Police broke up the protest outside parliament, a spokesman said, noting that "some 180 people were transferred to buses awaiting them after an illegal protest."
An AFP correspondent said police used force to disperse the demonstrators, at least two of whom needed medical care.
The sprawling detention facility only began operating on Thursday, when 484 illegal immigrants from Africa were taken there, the Israel Prisons Service said.
It is open during the day but inmates must return for a night lockdown, which an IPS spokeswoman said they had not done on Sunday.
Source: Agence France Presse
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