Deri warns 2nd facility will be needed for African migrants

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri says if the Supreme Court prevents Israel from expelling illegal immigrants from Africa to third countries, Israel will need to build a second detention facility to house those currently in the country.

Over 3,300 asylum seekers and migrants are currently incarcerated in the Holot detention center in southern Israel, where inmates are required to check in during morning and evening hours but are free to leave during the day.

“The Holot detention center is not enough and we will need to build another large facility,” Deri tells a meeting of the Knesset Interior Committee. “I prefer not to get to that and to work to maximize orderly agreements with other countries”

In August, the Suprme Court ordered the government to free illegal migrants held for more than a year at the site, in a ruling that affected 1,178 asylum seekers.

Official figures show some 47,000 illegal immigrants are in Israel, almost all from Eritrea and Sudan. Most of those who have not been detained live in poor areas of southern Tel Aviv, where there have been several protests over their presence.

Since 2006, Israel has struggled to establish and implement a clear legal framework to deal with the large influx of migrants, resulting in confusing and often conflicting ad hoc immigration policies.

The vast majority of African migrants living in Israel claim asylum seeker status, but the state has recognized fewer than 1% as asylum claimers and, since 2009, less than 0.15% — the lowest rate in the Western world.