Israel frees hundreds of African migrants

Israel on Tuesday released hundreds of African migrants from a facility in the southern Negev desert, at the orders of the Supreme Court.

Israel's High Court of Justice ruled on August 11 that a law allowing the detention of migrants in a semi-open facility for 20 months was unconstitutional, and that anyone detained for more than a year must be released immediately, reports dpa.

The court has repeatedly struck down new amendments to an Israeli law trying to deal with an influx of migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, who infiltrate Israel through its long border with Egypt.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has built a fence along the border, and also established a facility, near the border with Egypt, in late 2013.

Human rights groups say the reception centre is a jail, because the migrants must report to the facility's authorities once a day and because it is located in a remote area.

The court gave the Israeli government 15 days to implement its ruling that all migrants held there over a year must be released, a deadline that ends Wednesday.

In total 1,178 migrants will be released from Holot, Israel Prison Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said, about half of them Tuesday and the rest Wednesday.

They were told not to enter Tel Aviv or the southern Red Sea resort of Eilat, where most migrants are concentrated, causing overcrowding. But it is unclear how Israel plans to enforce that stipulation.

The migrants were also given food and water for one day and medicine for three days, Weizman said, before fending for themselves with temporary visas that need to be extended every two months.

Israel has appealed to third countries, saying it cannot grant formal asylum seeker status to the 45,000 illegal migrants in the tiny country. But as the rest of the world copes with a growing migration problem, few have come forward.

Israel has also tried to encourage some migrants to return to Africa voluntarily, offering cash as incentives, but under 1,400 have done so since the beginning of 2015.

Anat Ovadia, of the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants - Israel, slammed the government for leaving the migrants to their own devices in Israeli cities without any "infrastructure to accept them."

The only government-operated health clinic for migrants with no formal status was in Tel Aviv, she said.