The Social Affairs Ministry is objecting to the Defense Ministry's
handling of the refugee detention center being built in Ketzot near the
border with Egypt to hold what Israel call "infiltrators" and what the
rest of the world calls "refugees" and "asylum seekers."
The Ketzot detention center for African refugees
Ha'aretz reports that the Social Affairs Ministry is objecting to the Defense Ministry's handling of the African refugee detention center being built in Ketzot near the border with Egypt to hold what Israel call "infiltrators" and what the rest of the world calls "refugees" and "asylum seekers":
Living conditions in a detention facility for African asylum seekers now under construction in the Negev Desert will be "unreasonable," the Social Affairs Ministry has warned.
In an internal ministry document recently presented to the National Planning and Building Council, the ministry objected to the Defense Ministry's request to use tents instead of permanent buildings for half the living quarters at the camp, which is being built as part of a government plan to encourage asylum seekers to leave Israel. [emphasis added]
The Social Affairs Ministry also criticized the plan to start populating the camp with families and other asylum seekers before all the communal facilities, such as an infirmary, are completed. In addition, it objected …[to using] each structure to house up to 20 refugees, instead of six as the ministry recommends.
The document was prepared as a response to the Defense Ministry's request for changes in the plan of the facility…. "Some of these changes could significantly affect the living conditions in the center and the people and their behavior," stated the document.
The document accused the Defense Ministry of rushing to establish and populate the detention center before appropriate conditions exist, and without examining the effects of such conditions on the refugees. The effect of living in tents in arid desert conditions over the entire year has not been studied, the ministry stated. This is particularly important as asylum seekers could be held for up to two and a half years - or even more - at the facility.
The issue of having so many people living in one residential unit was also not examined…The technical appendices add that the units are intended for up to six residents…But the permanent housing units [which] are converted cargo containers…hold up to 20 people each. This could lead to violence…