Migrants strike against detention policy

Hundreds of African migrants held a brief protest at their detention facility on Sunday, claiming they were being held against the law.

Over 350 migrants from Sudan and Eritrea refused to leave the exercise yard at the Saharonim detention center, a 700-person facility located in the south of the country.

They were compelled to leave the yard and forced back to their cells by Prison Service guards.

In February, prison authorities quashed a similar protest at the same facility involving dozens of inmates who were objecting to their conditions.

Tens of thousands of immigrants from African countries have entered the country in recent years, claiming asylum-seeker status. While thousands have settled in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, Israel has sought to stem the tide, building a fence along its border with Egypt and putting those who cross the border into detention.

Most of the detainees are Eritrean or Sudanese, and by the government’s own directives they cannot be returned to their home countries due to dangers they face there from wars and persecution.

The government has sought to repatriate migrants to countries where such threats do not apply.

A UN official recently said that Israel’s policies contravened international law, which protects asylum-seekers from being sent back into danger zones.