African migrants protest Israel detention

African migrants protest Israel detention
# 18 December 2013 03:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A large number of African migrant workers living in the occupied Palestinian territories have held a demonstration in al-Quds (Jerusalem) to protest a law legalizing their open-ended detention, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The protest took place on Tuesday in front of the Israeli parliament, Knesset, in the occupied city after the migrants-- mostly from Sudan—had abandoned an “open” Israeli detention center on Sunday night and decided not to return to the facility.

The detainees were permitted to leave their facility during the day but they were told to return at nightfall.

Reports say that the majority of the protesters were arrested by Israeli forces.

The Israeli forces will reportedly take them back to the detention center in the Negev desert.

The Tel Aviv regime says most of the African immigrants are “illegal job-seekers” so they should be detained.

Earlier this month, the Israeli parliament approved a law allowing illegal African migrant workers to be held without any charges.

Under the new legislation, the illegal immigrants face up to 12 months in detention.

The law also gives Tel Aviv the right to send “illegal immigrants” to complexes called “open facilities” -- until they are deported or voluntarily go back to their homelands. Migrants kept in the open facilities will have no right to work.

Meanwhile, a new report says Israel has the lowest living standards among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In its economic survey for 2013, the organization says Israel’s “average living standards remain well below the top-ranking OECD countries,” adding, “The rate of relative poverty [in Israel] is the highest in the OECD area....”

The report warned against severe deterioration of living conditions in Israel, saying, “The incomes of about one in five Israeli households fall below the poverty line.”

Many Israelis have been migrating in recent months to Germany and the United States. It is said that the Israelis are leaving Israel on economic grounds.

High taxes and low salaries have had adverse effects on the lives of Israelis, specifically the middle class, in recent years.

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