TEL AVIV
Reuters - Sun Jan 5, 2014
(Reuters) -
Thousands of African migrants, many holding banners demanding freedom
for compatriots jailed as illegal job-seekers by Israel, protested on Sunday in a main Tel Aviv square against a new open-ended detention law.
Human rights groups
say more than 300 people have been arrested since the law, which allows
authorities to detain migrants without valid visas indefinitely, was
passed by Israel's parliament three weeks ago.
Some 60,000 migrants, largely from Eritrea and Sudan, have crossed into Israel across a once-porous border with Egypt since 2006, Israeli authorities say.
Many
live in poor areas of Tel Aviv and say they want asylum and safe haven.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he views the presence of
many of the Africans as a threat to Israel's Jewish social fabric and
his government.
An Israeli border fence has since cut off the influx from Egypt,
but migrants who have already crossed can be sent to what the
government describes as an open prison in Israel's southern desert.
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