Arad mayor says no African migrants in my town

The mayor of Arad, a city in the south of Israel, sets up inspectors and police officers at the entrances to the city in an effort to prevent African migrants released from the Holot detention center from entering the city.

On his Facebook page, Mayor Nissan Ben Hamo predicted that because of the prohibition the state imposed on migrants from working and residing in Tel Aviv or Eilat, the migrants would come to Arad. But, he said, he would not allow this. Currently several hundred migrants live in Arad.

The migrants were released today from the Holot detention facility following a High Court ruling that rejected parts of a Knesset law drafted to deal with the influx of African migrants to the country.

Specifically, the court significantly shortened the amount of time migrants can be held in Holot.

The legislation on African migrants has been a string of legal fiascoes for the government, as well as the previous government. The court earlier this month rejected the third iteration of the law in question.

On Sunday, Interior Minister Silvan Shalom said that the migrants released from Holot will not be allowed into Tel Aviv or Eilat. De facto, many of the migrants already in Eilat and Tel Aviv are employed in menial jobs such as cleaners or dishwashers in restaurants. Others, unemployed, turn to petty crime.

The government has never explained its unofficial policy of busing the migrants en masse from the southern border of Israel to the south of Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest metropolis. The original residents of the dilapidated southern part of the city are among the most vocal in calling to deport the migrants.