Immoral Israhell: Super detention center to deter economic migrants

A vast detention complex is rising from the sandy grounds of Ktzi'ot prison in the Negev Desert, close to Israel's border with Egypt, which will become the world's largest holding facility for asylum seekers and migrants.

Immoral Israhell: Super detention center to deter economic migrants Nwmideastwide2012041818

When it is completed, at an initial cost of $89 million to the Israeli government, it will be capable of holding up to 11,000 people.

Despite unprecedented protests at rising costs of living, and increased threats to national security, immigration is of such paramount importance to Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition that it has skimmed a minimum of 2 per cent from every ministry's budget to fund the construction and start-up costs of the project.
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''We are a small country of 8 million,'' said Mark Regev, the government's spokesman. ''Last year we had more illegal immigrants than legal ones. We are currently the only first-world economy and the only democracy in the region. But for people coming from countries like Somalia and Sudan, we cannot be the solution.''

Mr Regev said the new detention centre, which should receive its first 3000 detainees by the end of this year, was part of a multi-tiered strategy to tackle and deter economic migration. Other measures include a security fence that will run the length of Israel's southern border, aggressive implementation of employment laws and, ultimately, repatriation of the migrants.

In January, the Knesset passed a controversial bill categorising anyone attempting to enter the country through its southern border as an ''infiltrator'' who can be detained for three years - longer if they are from a ''hostile state'' such as Sudan.

Of the 13,683 people who entered Israel illegally in 2010, 62 per cent were Eritreans and 33 per cent were Sudanese.

In 2010, Israel recognised three refugees, rising to six last year. In total, just 170 people claiming asylum have been granted refugee status by the Jewish state since it signed the refugee convention in 1949.

Mubarak, 18, arrived in 2009. He fled Darfur in western Sudan when the Janjaweed militia destroyed his village. He was 15 when he arrived in Israel and was held at a detention camp for women and children for 22 days, with up to 30 children in one small tent.

''I didn't know what would happen to me,'' he said. ''No one said when I was going to be let out. That was the worst thing, not knowing. When you aren't able to move, to go anywhere, you have too much time to think. We are refugees. We aren't supposed to be in jail.''

Israel's ministry of defence says the new detention facility will have libraries, teachers, daycare, basketball courts and several hairdressing salons.

Amnesty International says that however much the conditions are improved, prolonged detention of asylum seekers is still illegal. ''Asylum seekers should not be treated as criminals,'' it says.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/israel-hopes-super-detention-centre-will-help-deter-economic-migrants-20120418-1x7pt.html#ixzz1sTUUAhZd

Immoral Israhell: Super detention center to deter economic migrants

Immoral Israhell: Super detention center to deter economic migrants

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