Israel Top Court Overturns Controversial Migrants Provision

Israel's supreme court overturned Tuesday a provision of a law that would have allowed illegal immigrants to be held for up to 20 months without trial, judicial sources said.

The law, passed in December, stipulated that anyone entering Israel illegally can be held at Saharonim prison for up to three months before being transferred to Holot detention center for a total of up to 20 months.

Both sites are in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

It was the third time in three years that the court has rejected provisions on prolonged custody for illegal immigrants.

The court ruled that 20 months was a "disproportionate" period.

It also ruled that illegal immigrants imprisoned for more than a year at Saharonim should be released within two weeks.

Other provisions in the law were approved.

Official figures show that nearly 50,000 Africans are in the country illegally, mostly from Eritrea, which is regularly accused of human rights abuses, and from war-ravaged South Sudan.

Most of those in the country illegally who have not been detained live in poor areas of southern Tel Aviv, where there have been several protests over their presence.

Human Rights Watch said last September that Israel had illegally forced nearly 7,000 Eritrean and Sudanese to return home, where some face persecution.

Rights groups have strongly condemned Israel for its immigration policy and treatment of African asylum seekers, particularly over the Holot detention center.