Tag Archive for migrants

Israel’s border-fence 100% effective in preventing illegal migrants from entering Israel in 2017

Israel’s completed border fence successfully prevented migrants from entering Israel illegally in 2017, while gov’t data shows 4,012 illegal ‘residents’ left voluntarily.
• Cabinet to discuss the closing of the Negev’s Holot detention center, leaving held illegal migrants with two options: indefinite detention elsewhere or voluntary departure.

By Itsik Saban and Yori Yalon

 

Not one migrant entered Israel illegally in 2017, according to figures from the Border Crossings, Population and Immigration Administration. The figures mark a turning point in the fight against illegal immigration in the country.

According to the administration’s figures, 4,012 illegal residents – 3,332 of them citizens of African countries – voluntarily left Israel in 2017. Continue Reading »

Israel’s Defense Minister ends IDF soldiers volunteering with migrant families

After public outcry, Defense Minister Liberman gave orders: ‘If soldiers have free time, they should help Holocaust survivors or the needy. Charity begins at home.’

By i24news

 

Israeli Defense Minster Avigdor Liberman has given orders to put a stop to a volunteering program involving IDF soldiers playing with children of migrants in south Tel Aviv after the incident caused public outcry, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday.

Israel’s then FM, now Defense Minister, Avigdor Liberman – Photo: AFP/MENAHEM KAHANA

According to the report, Liberman personally phoned IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot last week and ordered him to put an immediate end to the program. Continue Reading »

Israeli Humanitarian Group Aids Refugees Europe’s Returning to Turkey

 

The Israeli humanitarian aid agency IsraAID, continues its work helping Muslim refugees as they are forcibly deported from Greece back to Turkey.

By Israel Today Staff, IsraAID in Greece

 

In accordance with the European Union’s decision and its agreement with the Turkish government, the deportation of refugees from Greece to Turkey began this week.

IsraAID website

 

This decision determines that every refugee arriving after March 20th 2016 will be immediately deported back to Turkey. In return, Turkey will receive a financial compensation from the EU.

IsraAID, an international humanitarian aid agency, has been working since last year in Greece and other parts of Europe, including Serbia, Croatia and the refugees’ final destination countries. Continue Reading »

Bodies of 15 African Migrants Discovered Near Israel’s Border By Egyptian Police

 

In attempting to come to the Jewish State through Egypt’s Sinai desert, 15 African migrants were shot dead near Israel’s border by unknown assailants.

By i24news

 

The bodies of 15 African migrants were found Sunday by Egyptian police near the country’s border with Israel, according to security sources. Another eight migrants were reportedly found injured.

The border fence along Israel’s border with Egypt near the Red Sea resort town of Eilat – Photo: AFP

“Fifteen bodies of Africans shot dead were found at dawn on Sunday south of (the town of) Rafah,” said Tariq Khatir, a representative of the health ministry in North Sinai. Continue Reading »

German Security Agency: Influx of Migrants Will Bring anti-Semitism

 

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL

 

BERLIN – Germany’s security and intelligence agencies expressed alarm over the influx of refugees and migrants who harbor radical Islamic views and hatred of Jews, according to a Sunday report in Welt am Sonntag.

Syrian Refugees in Berlin. – Photo: URIEL HEILMAN/ JTA

According to a security document obtained by the paper and read by top-level agency personnel, “We are importing Islamic extremism, Arab anti-Semitism, national and ethnic conflicts of other peoples as well as a different societal and legal understanding.”

Continue Reading »

As Europe Burns, Former French Minister: Germany Took Our Jews & Gave Us Arabs

 

A former French minister Patrick Devedjian quickly tried to back-step after stirring up controversy when he sarcastically said Germany left his country with Arabs.

By Ben Ariel, Canada

 

A former French minister stirred up controversy on Friday after saying Germany “took our Jews and gave us Arabs”.

The comments by Patrick Devedjian came as France began taking some of the thousands of refugees arriving in Germany and were taken sensitively in light of the refugee crisis in Europe.

Riots broke out when unregistered refugees tried to leave Lesbos on board a ferry – EPA

Devedjian, who served in the governments of presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, made the remark at a press conference, but quickly tried to backtrack on social media, according to the AFP news agency. Continue Reading »

Israel Begins to Build Anti-Infiltrator Fence on its Jordan Border

 

The fence, aimed at stopping infiltrators from the east, will begin at Israel’s southern border with Jordan near Eilat going northwards for 30 kilometers.

By Arutz Sheva

 

The building of a border fence intended to bar those attempting to infiltrate into Israel from the east will commence on Sunday between Israel and Jordan.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon will officially announce the beginning of the project later today.

Border fence between Israel and Egypt is how the new fence will look. – Photo: Reuters

The fence on Israel’s eastern border is being designed with the aim of having a similar effect in preventing the entrance of infiltrators as the fence on Israel’s southern border with the Sinai Peninsula. Continue Reading »

Years After Condemning Israel, European Countries Now Seek Similar Border Fence

 

In seeking solutions to help tackle the massive migrant crises enveloping European nations, Hungary & Bulgaria are inquiring about Israeli designed border fences & security systems.

By Reuters

 

Faced with a surge in migration from the Middle East and North Africa, two European countries are exploring the possibility of erecting towering steel security fences along parts of their borders, similar to Israel’s barrier with Egypt. 

Hungary and Bulgaria have made preliminary inquiries about buying the Israeli-designed fences, according to an Israeli business source who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the discussions.

A border fence in Hungary – Photo: Reuters

Both EU countries are beefing up their borders to deter migrants, many of them refugees from wars, who are seeking to use them as gateways to richer countries further north and west, particularly Germany.  Continue Reading »

773 ‘asylum seekers’ left Israel in January for cash payment

 

Israel’s Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar reports a dramatic rise in the number of migrant ‘asylum seekers’ who preferred to accept the gov’t offer, and left Israel for the cash payment.

By Omri Efraim

More than 700 asylum seekers left Israel under the “voluntary emigration” program in January, said Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Wednesday during a visit to the Holot detention center.

Human rights organizations criticize the government program claiming it is not “voluntary emigration” when the only other alternative to staying in Israel is incarceration.

The January figure of 773 asylum seekers who exited the country is substantially higher than the overall numbers from the fourth quarter of 2013. Continue Reading »

Israel to exchange weapons for migrants with African countries

Senior Israeli official says deal nearly completed with African governments to take tens of thousands of migrant expatriates in exchange for weapons, military training & ‘Israeli know how’.

By Itamar Eichner

Israel is close to signing a deal with several African countries who will accept tens of thousands of African migrants currently residing in Israel in exchange for a benefits package including security, economic and agricultural aid.

Sudanese migrants in Tel Aviv - Photo: Moti Kimchi

Sudanese migrants in Tel Aviv – Photo: Moti Kimchi

According to a senior official, the security aid will include Israeli arms and military knowledge and training.

Such deals are close to being finalized with at least three African countries, the official said. Continue Reading »

Netanyahu tells to Cabinet: Israel has stopped infiltration of African migrants

PM reports to the cabinet that 54 migrants crossed border in October & all were taken into custody- a steep decline from the 2,000 migrants who succeeded monthly in mid-2012.

By Reuters

 

Israel has stopped the unapproved influx of African migrants across its border with Egypt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday after months of intensive counter-measures on the once porous desert frontier.

Africans - Eliyahu Hershkovitz - December 9 2011

An African man being held at the Saharonim detention facility in the Negev, after he was apprehended crossing illegally into Israel from the Sinai. – Photo by Eliyahu Hershkovitz

More than 60,000 African migrants have walked into Israel in recent years, some seeking work and others refuge. Continue Reading »

Egyptian security personel kill African migrant near Israeli border

In a separate incident, Egyptian officials report  Police arrested 26 migrants from Ethiopia, Sudan, & Eritrea before they reached Israel’s border.

By The Associated Press and Gili Cohen

 

An Egyptian security official says border guards have shot dead an African migrant near the border with Israel.

Refugees in Sinai

African immigrants sit near the border fence between Israel and Egypt near the Israeli village of Be’er Milcha September 6, 2012. – Photo by Reuters

The official said the 25-year-old Eritrean refused to surrender when police fired warning shots in the air and continued running toward the Israeli border near Rafah in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Saturday. Continue Reading »

Interior Minister: Migrants on Egyptian side of the border will not be allowed to enter Israel

Activists stopped at border in attempts to bring food to about 20 Eritrean migrants  stuck in Egypt at Israel’s border.

By Gili Cohen

 

In response to a report of some 20 Eritrean migrants trapped between the Israel-Egypt border, Interior Minsiter Eli Yishai declared, “We will not bring the Eritreans into Israeli territory.”

IDF soldiers standing guard over African migrants on the Egypt-Israel border.

IDF soldiers standing guard over African migrants on the Egypt-Israel border. – Photo by Eliyahu Hershkovitz

“It is hardest for me, of anyone, to see these pictures, and return families to their homelands. It is hard for me to see these pictures, but I am the one who has to make the difficult decision, and if I have to choose between the good of the state, its civilians, and its security, [and the good of the families] I will choose that there be a fence, that they won’t enter, and instead return to their country,” continued Yishai. Continue Reading »

South Sudan migrants ‘ready to go home’

African migrants come to terms with imminent deportation as Immigration Authority inspectors sweep through major cities: ‘Now we are free to return to an independent country’

 

By Ynet reporters

 

“All South Sudanese migrants want to go back home. Israel is not our country,” one migrant told Ynet Monday as dozens of Africans were detained nationwide ahead of their deportation.

Detained migrants in Eilat Photo courtesy of Immigration Authority

Detained migrants in Eilat - Photo courtesy of Immigration Authority

“When I came here my country was at war and it was dangerous,” said John, who crossed into Israel from Egypt five years ago and settled in Eilat. “Now I’m ready to go back. Continue Reading »