Israel is making progress dealing with the issue of “infiltrators” illegally
crossing Israel’s southern border, the Prime Minister’s office said on
Sunday.
“We are already seeing results in the field, there is a lot of
work to left to do but we are on the right path,” the PMO said Sunday, following
a meeting Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu held with Defense Minister Ehud
Barak, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, and several senior police, prisons service,
and immigration officers.
Following the meeting, the PMO released figures
saying that so far 200 kilometers of the southern border fence have been
completed, and that the rest of the fence will be finished by the end of
October.
The PMO also released figures saying that in June 928
“infiltrators” were arrested, as opposed to 1,213 in June of last year, and
2,031 last May. They added that 129 “infiltrators” have been arrested since the
start of July, and that all are being held in Israeli detention facilities in
keeping with the “infiltrators law” which allows Israel to jail for up to three
years without trial those caught illegally crossing into the
country.
They added that by the end of the year they expect to have room
in Israeli detention facilities to hold an additional 12,000 illegal migrants.