More than three months have passed since the Knesset passed the law to prevent infiltration. Exactly 100 days into the law, Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar arrived for a discussion on the subject in the Interior Committee to examine the achievements of the law.<\/p>\r\n
It should be recalled that during MK Eli Yishai's tenure at the Ministry of the Interior, and without a formal law on the subject, many efforts were made to convince infiltrators to leave the country, in exchange for financial benefits. However, according to the review conducted by Minister Sa'ar, it appears that enshrining the process in law led to an increase in the number of those leaving voluntarily.<\/p>\r\n
While in the last quarter of 2013 only 825 refugees left the country, in the first quarter of 2014 approximately 4,000 refugees left the country voluntarily - a number of departures five times greater than in the past.<\/p>\r\n
According to the Minister, the Holot facility currently houses approximately 1,533 infiltrators, approximately 50% of the facility's capacity. He also noted that within a few months the facility will be fully occupied and its expansion should be considered. He also noted that his office has begun enforcing the ban on employing infiltrators with a total of 350 fines (approximately 3 million NIS). The employment ban is enforced against employers who have employed infiltrators who have already been summoned to the Holot facility - these are infiltrators who are prohibited from being employed by law. In parallel with the enforcement actions, the financial incentive for voluntary departure of infiltrators was increased from $1,500 to $3,500. The Minister said that he is inclined to extend the incentive for an additional period of 3 months. He also said that according to his estimates, 10% of the infiltrators left the city centers in the first quarter of 2014.<\/p>\r\n
Yehoshua Weiss, a prisoner management officer in the Southern District of the Prison Service, explained the difference between the Saharonim facility and the Holot facility. The Saharonim facility is a closed prison facility intended for those who break the law and violate the conditions of stay in the Holot camp. In contrast, the Holot camp is an open camp where people enter and exit during the day and are allowed to move around freely at all hours of the day. The facility has sports fields, clubs, and a clinic that operates 24 hours a day. The clinic also offers dental treatment.<\/p>\r\n
During the hearing, it became clear that the prohibition on spending money by infiltrators (beyond the permitted amount) is still not being sufficiently enforced.<\/p>\r\n
Residents of the Neve Sha'anan neighborhood in Tel Aviv, who attended the hearing, claimed that there is still a lot of crime by the infiltrators and that their lives are still not livable. Dan Par, a resident of the neighborhood, asked for increased policing on the streets of the neighborhood. Mr. Oved Hogi, from the Action Committee of the South Tel Aviv Neighborhoods, asked that the neighborhood rehabilitation project be activated in order to rehabilitate the neighborhoods after the destruction that has been inflicted on them.<\/p>\r\n
In concluding the discussion, Minister Saar said that there are currently about 1,000 asylum applications being processed by about 60 people. He noted that he met with interior ministers from various countries to examine the problem of infiltrators. He emphasized that the process that has begun must not be stopped, even if it is not perfect.<\/p>\r\n
MK Miri Regev said that everything must be done to return the infiltrators to their countries of origin. She promised that the police handling of existing crime would be discussed in the committee later. MK Regev expressed her displeasure that the solution of transferring the infiltrators to a third country (other than their country of origin) is not progressing. In conclusion, she expressed her hope that the Supreme Court judges will understand the plight of the residents of southern Tel Aviv and reject the petition seeking to repeal the law to prevent infiltration.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Holot facility is populated at half its capacity, and thousands of infiltrators from Africa are already abandoning the State of Israel \u2022 An IPS officer explained the difference between the population facilities","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[271,272,270],"class_list":["post-1187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-24","tag-271","tag-272","tag-270"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n