Israeli prime minister Netanyahu describes African migrants as worse threat than jihadists
- Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that African migrants are a worse threat than jihadists
- He said a fence along the Israel-Egypt border has saved Jewish state from what he believed could be worse than jihadist attacks - a tide of African migrants
- Netanyahu stated that a tide of non-Jewish immigration would threaten the very fabric of Israel
The prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, March 20, said that an electric fence along the Israel-Egypt border has saved Jewish state from influx of African migrants who he believed were worse than jihadist attackers .
Netanyahu's office quoted him as telling a development conference in the southern Israel desert town of Dimona that if it was not for the fence, the country would be faced with severe attack by Sinai terrorists and something much worse, which he said was a flood of illegal migrants from Africa, The Times of India reports.
YEN.com.gh notes that the interior ministry stated that there were currently some 42,000 African migrants in Israel; mainly from Sudan and Eritrea, and the government has ordered that thousands of them must leave or face indefinite imprisonment.
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It was reported that they began slipping into Israel illegally in 2007 through what was then a porous border with Egypt's lawless Sinai region.
Due to a 200-kilometre (124 mile) hi-tech fence given to the frontier with Israel's Negev desert, the influx has stopped.
The prime minister stated that a tide of non-Jewish immigration would threaten the very fabric of Israel.
He said: "We are talking about a Jewish and democratic state, but how could we assure a Jewish and democratic state with 50,000 and then 100,000 and 150,000 migrants a year."
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According to NAIJ.com, the government of Israel issued a notice for thousands of African migrants to leave the country or face imprisonment. The country said the migrants would be given up to $3,500 for leaving within the next 90 days.
It was reported that the order, however, exempted children, elderly people, and victims of slavery and human trafficking.
With this order, migrants would have the option of going to their home country or third countries, but if they refused to leave, the Israeli authorities would have them thrown in jail starting from April 2018.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
