Israeli police arrests 213 immigrants in deportation raids

Israel's immigration police have arrested 213 people, more than half of them from South Sudan, in a series of raids aimed at rounding up and deporting illegal immigrants, officials said on Tuesday, June 12, AFP reported.

Officials from the Population and Migration Authority said a total of 140 people had been arrested on Sunday and Monday, with another 73 picked up in nationwide raids on Tuesday morning.

Sunday's raids, which began in the early morning, saw police round up some 25 immigrants, around a third of them from South Sudan, but the campaign gathered speed on Monday, when 115 people were arrested, spokeswoman Sabine Hadad said.

Further raids on Tuesday morning saw another 73 people arrested, immigration officials said without giving a breakdown of their countries of origin.

Official figures show there are 60,000 Africans living in Israel illegally, most of whom live in the run down neighbourhoods of southern Tel Aviv.

But around a quarter of that number are living in the southern Red Sea resort town of Eilat, located next to the Egyptian border, and where immigration police could on Tuesday be seen stopping African passers by and asking for their IDs.

Last week, an Israeli court decided that the lives of an estimated 1,500 South Sudanese were no longer at risk in their homeland, clearing the way for their mass expulsion.

It was not immediately clear when the deportations would begin, although a report in Israel's Maariv newspaper suggested that the first flight would leave for Juba, the capital of South Sudan, on Sunday.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who has frequently tried to expel non-Jewish immigrants sparking accusations of racism, on Tuesday said the raids were "just the beginning."

Rising tensions over the growing number of illegal immigrants entering Israel exploded into violence last month when a protest in south Tel Aviv turned nasty, with demonstrators smashing African-run shops and property, chanting "Blacks out!"