BREAKING NEWS

New 'anti-infiltration' bill passes vote in Knesset

The Knesset on Monday passed the third version of the so-called ''infiltrators law'' with 47 votes for and 23 against, hours after the new version of the law was approved in committee.
On Monday morning the Knesset Interior Committee approved the second and third reading of the bill meant to prevent “infiltration” of African migrants into Israel, and to encourage others to leave the country. The new version of the bill follows two previous ones that were struck down by the High Court of Justice, and means the bill has only to be voted on by the Knesset plenum in order to go into law.
The latest version passed in committee today includes three main basic changes over previous versions. It cuts the time a new migrant can be kept in closed detention centers from a year to three months, after which they’ll be moved to the Holot open detention center. The new bill stipulates that migrants can be held for up to 20 months in Holot and that they must show up for head count once a day as opposed to three times like before, and finally, it outlines new, stiffer penalties for people employing illegal migrants. Migrants must also pay a monthly deposit which they can only receive after leaving the country. The money will be taken from the monthly salary of the migrant.