Eritrean refugees (archive)
Photo: Ohad Avidan Keidar
Yishai wants to send infiltrators back to Eritrea
Interior minister approaches Foreign Minister Lieberman in a bid to examine ways together with African state to return infiltrators back to homeland
Interior Miniater Eli Yihsai has drawn up a plan according to which the Foreign Ministry would approach Eritrea in a bid to return some 13,000 of its citizens who have infiltrated into Israel.
Yishai presented the plan in a letter to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. "According to professional elements in my office one can hold talks with Eritrea in order to find solutions for the problem of infiltrators, since Israel maintains diplomatic relations with the country," Yishai noted.
The minister also asked to meet Lieberman and discuss the issue with him.
According to Interior Ministry data, 25,000 infiltrators from Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and other African countries are registered in Israel. Some 1,300 infiltrators entered Israel in the the last month.
It was recently revealed that some Eritrean residents who try to infiltrate into Israel are being abused in the Sinai Peninsula.
Shalom Yehosua from the Population and Immigration Border Authority said that a 25-year-old woman from Eritrea who crossed the border into Israel said she was raped by eight Bedouins leading her and a group of refugees through Sinai.
"She was very closed-off, cried all the time and nearly didn't speak, I instructed not to question her at that stage," Yehoshua told Ynet. "She was very frightened. An army medic performed an initial examination and she was turned over to the Israel Prison Service for more tests."
