PIBA: African migrants must return to detention facility or face arrest

Authorities say they will also step up enforcement of employment and immigration law against Israelis employing migrants illegally.

By BEN HARTMAN
Migrants protest Jerusalem 370 (photo credit: Benjamin Rosen)
Migrants protest Jerusalem 370
(photo credit: Benjamin Rosen)
The Population Immigration and Borders Authority will begin calling African migrants in Israeli city centers to tell them to make their way to the open detention facility in the south, PIBA announced Sunday.
They added that the migrants will be called to meetings at their offices where they will be instructed that they have 30 days to arrive at the “Holot” detention facility or face arrest, PIBA said in a statement on Sunday.
They said that they will also step up their enforcement of employment and immigration law against Israelis employing migrants illegally.
Last Thursday, the Holot facility officially opened and 483 migrants were moved in over the weekend. Almost immediately they began leaving the facility and refusing to return, with around 200 eventually making their way to Beersheba and then Jerusalem, where they held a protest outside the Knesset on Tuesday.
On Saturday night, around 2,000 African migrants and their supporters marched and danced through central Tel Aviv, shouting “freedom” and demanding an end to the anti-infiltration amendment.