Curb the African invasion

Op-ed: Rate of infiltration by work migrants equals that of Jewish immigration to Israel

Hagai Segal|Published: 07.30.10 , 15:15

If you still refuse to get excited over African immigration to Israel, here is a figure that may prompt an emotional turnaround: The rate of infiltration through our southern border has equaled the rate of Jewish immigration from the Diaspora.

About 1,200 people on average breach our southern border each month. Multiply this by 12 and you’ll get 14,400 infiltrators a year – a number that is frighteningly similar to the scope of Aliyah to Israel last year: 14,567. That is, for each new immigrant who lands in Ben-Gurion Airport we have an infiltrator who comes into the Negev.

Feature

For the sake of the children

Smadar Shir

Rotem Ilan gave up lucrative career to lead struggle against foreign kids' deportation

For the sake of the children

In the media they are referred to as “Sudanese refugees,” a nickname that evokes Jews mercy, yet almost all of them are not refugees of any kind. They are African citizens who seek an Israeli cure for their personal employment problems. Most of them happen to arrive from Eritrea and from Ghana.

If we stop them on the border and send them back to where they came from, we will not be causing them irreversible damage. Yet if we hesitate about stopping them, we shall cause ourselves irreversible damage. We may end up dividing Jerusalem in order to preserve our Jewish character, yet the next day discover an African majority in Eilat, Arad, and southern Tel Aviv.

No sense of urgency

The government (and only the government) is the one that should be countering this, yet for the time being it mostly looks on instead of acting. Anyone involved in this issue admits that this is a national problem of the highest priority and possibly more burning than the Iranian question; nonetheless, no minister had been authorized to handle the issue thus far.

The prime minister has yet to establish a ministry for curbing African work migrants. He leaves this headache up to IDF commanders, without providing them with the means for resolving the problem. Despite all the calls of distress there is no budget for building a fence, no manpower, no clear instructions, and mostly no sense of urgency.

When the current government was sworn in, we had about 12,000-13,000 work migrants from Africa in Israel. Today, there are 27,000 of them Experts estimate that in three years, when the government completes its term in office, we shall have 100,000 migrants here. So if this government doesn’t want this to turn into a major issue in the next election campaign, it would do well to seal this southern loophole already.