[Migrants arrested by the Israeli police - 16/09/2013- Picture from the same article]
In a victory for human-rights groups who have demanded the migrants be recognized as refugees, the court ruled against a 2012 amendment to Israel's anti-infiltration law that permitted jailing migrants, even though they weren't a public threat, to deter illegal migrants.
The Supreme Court ruled that the migrants must now be considered for release within 90 days under Israel's Law of Entry, which forbids extended detention. Israel's anti-infiltration law was passed in the 1950s to prevent the return of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and to handle guerrilla infiltrators from neighboring Arab countries.
The completion of a new border fence with Egypt has virtually cut off the flow of thousands of migrants per month. Israel has also persuaded some 3,500 Africans to go back home or to other African countries—500 of them from the detention centers. Human-rights groups have accused the government of placing psychological pressure on the migrants to leave Israel.
In recent months, Israel's press has reported that the country reached an agreement with Uganda to absorb the migrants, though the Ugandan government denied the reports. Israel has also weighed legislation to prevent refugees from sending money earned in Israel to relatives outside the country.
We expect this decision [will] make the Israeli government re-evaluate how it handles asylum seekers," who Mr. Cohen says now, instead of being detained, should have access to health care and welfare and an opportunity to integrate into Israeli society.
Read more
