Israel in Mass Round-Up of Migrants for Deportation

Israeli authorities on Monday rounded up dozens of migrants slated for deportation, most of them Africans from South Sudan, as the government weighs tough penalties against Israelis who help illegal aliens.

The Population and Migration Authority said officers arrested 45 migrants from South Sudan, along with three Nigerians, two Ghanaians, two Chinese, one from Ivory Coast, one from the Philippines and one whose nationality is being checked.

In at least two cases, women with young children were picked up as they walked down the street during early-morning swoops in the Red Sea resort town of Eilat, public radio reported.

Rights activists said migrants were being picked up across the town -- at cashpoints, at their workplaces as well as through door-to-door searches.

"The people arrested were taken on buses to detention centers. Their mobile phones were confiscated," journalist and activist Toni Lissi told army radio.

"Other immigrants are hiding in their homes, not daring to go out until things calm down," she said.

Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the detainees would initially be held at the Saharonim detention center in the southern Negev desert, which has room for 2,000 inmates.

"It's a decent place with all essential facilities," he told public radio, referring to the center which lies close to the Egyptian border, which was first opened in 2007.

"We'll put them in there and towards next week we'll bring a (chartered) plane -- I hope we'll be able to organize more than one -- in coordination with the South Sudanese government."

Yishai denied he was fuelling growing public discontent over the issue of immigration, which boiled over last month when a 1,000-strong protest against the rising number of Africans in Israel turned violent, with demonstrators smashing African-run shops and property, chanting "Blacks out!"

"It's not easy for me. I don't enjoy the task," said Yishai who frequently tried to expel non-Jewish immigrants, sparking accusations of racism. "I don't do from xenophobia but from love of my people."

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

Community workers said they were led to understand the migrants would have at least a week to put their affairs in order and volunteer for repatriation, but arrests began before dawn on Sunday, when eight South Sudanese and 17 others were taken into custody.

On Sunday, Israel's Haaretz newspaper said a government committee on legislation had approved a draft bill which would raise the maximum penalty for Israelis who employed, housed or transported illegal immigrants to five years behind bars, compared with the current two years.

MPs are expected to vote on the bill at a preliminary reading later this week.

Interior ministry figures show around 60,000 Africans are living in Israel illegally.

Some are refugees fleeing persecution in their home nations, but others are economic migrants.

Police arrested 20 people immediately after last month's riot in south Tel Aviv, and since then, there have been several other attacks on immigrants, including the firebombing of an apartment in Jerusalem last week, which lightly injured four Eritreans.

The riots sparked shock in Israel, but also prompted top-level calls for the immediate arrest and expulsion of tens of thousands of African migrants, most of whom come from Sudan, South Sudan and Eritrea.