JERUSALEM (JTA) — African migrants being held in Israel’s Holot detention facility protested an alleged lack of beds that forced some new inmates to sleep outside.
On Tuesday, hundreds of detainees disobeyed a nightly 10 p.m. curfew, staying outside their rooms until well past the designated time.
On Monday, 29 migrants were transferred to Holot from Saharonim Prison, and inmates claimed that nine of the new arrivals were forced to sleep outside due to a shortage of available beds, according to Haaretz.
Officials from Israel’s Prison Service, which runs Holot, denied the allegations and said beds were available to the new inmates, but they refused them because they wanted to stay together.
Holot, which opened last year as a facility to hold the migrants pending their deportation, now houses 2,300 people. Migrants are sent there by order of Israel’s Interior Ministry.
