Israel Stops African Immigration

According to an article in the Jewish Daily Forward newspaper, titled “Israel Virtually Stops African Immigration,” the Israeli government has said that its  “border measures have cut off the flow.
“Israel has stopped the unapproved influx of African migrants across its border with Egypt,” the article quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The announcement followed “months of intensive counter-measures on the once porous desert frontier. More than 60,000 African migrants have walked into the Jewish state in recent years, some seeking work and others refuge. They have stirred fear for public order and demographics and prompted the government to build a fortified and closely patrolled fence between Israel and the Egyptian Sinai.”

According to the article, Netanyahu told his cabinet that “54 migrants crossed the border in October and were all taken into custody – a steep decline from the some 2,000 migrants who came through monthly in mid-2012, many of them settling in Israeli cities.

“Given this figure, we can say explicitly that we have halted the infiltration. And now we have to focus on removing or returning those infiltrators who are already in the territory of Israel to their countries of origin,” he said.