Likud minister Levin slams court ruling on African migrants

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin lashes out at a Supreme Court decision placing limitations on the expulsion of African migrants and the terms of their incarceration for infiltrating into the country.

Levin, of the ruling Likud Party, calls the judges’ considerations “post-Zionist” while other ministers vowed to draft legislation that would bypass the decision.

The court ruled migrants could be expelled to third countries if they face danger in their country of origin. But it also said the state could not incarcerate them for more than 60 days in a bid to pressure them to leave.

Tens of thousands flooded into Israel from Africa, most from Eritrea and Sudan, before Israel erected a fence along its border with Egypt’s lawless Sinai Peninsula that has largely stopped the influx.

— AP