African asylum seekers announce plan to hold 3 day strike over Israel's refugee policies

Recent protests have been led and made up of African asylum seekers, who numbered in the several thousands.

By BEN HARTMAN
African migrants gather outside Interior Ministry in TA (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
African migrants gather outside Interior Ministry in TA
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
African asylum-seekers plan to hold a three-day strike to protest their treatment by the government, activists announced on Thursday.
Asylum-seekers plan to march through Tel Aviv on Sunday morning, from Lewinsky Park to Rabin Square, and then to hold separate protests on Monday at a number of foreign embassies around the city, the African Refugees Development Center said. On Tuesday, they plan a demonstration along the beachfront on Hayarkon Street.
The protests are the latest step in a renewed campaign in the face of new legislation and policies – including the opening of a new detention facility for migrants in the South – which migrants say have made their lives and future in Israel much more precarious.
For the past two Saturday nights, thousands of African asylum-seekers have held protest marches in central Tel Aviv. Unlike the protests in previous years, the crowds were predominantly led by and made up of Africans, who numbered in the thousands.