JERUSALEM – Israeli police have shut down around 30 nightclubs frequented by undocumented African immigrants and asylum-seekers in southern Tel Aviv, local press reports said Friday, in a macro-operation that also saw numerous arrests and confiscation of illegal substances.
The online version of the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Thursday night’s crackdown focused on an area near the coastal city’s bus station, and is considered the biggest operation ever by the Israeli police to counter illegal immigration from Africa.
It appeared that the operation was linked to the law recently approved by the Israeli parliament, which seeks to prevent Africans who arrive illegally in Israel in search of political asylum from entering the country.
The law also facilitates the detention of these migrants for long periods in a prison in the Negev desert.
This is the third version of the law to be issued by the Israeli government, after the country’s Supreme Court overturned the previous two versions for violating immigrants’ rights.
The new version allows Israeli authorities to detain illegal immigrants for periods that could exceed 20 months in the Holot prison in the south of the country.
During the crackdown, police confiscated quantities of adulterated liquors, drugs and stolen objects, according to the newspaper, which provided no information concerning the number of arrests that were made.
Latin American Herald Tribune
