The Ethiopian immigrant community is becoming increasingly bitter over the housing shortage, a senior official of the Jewish Agency for Israel warned Sunday.
Uri Gordon, chairman of the agency’s immigration department, said about 3,500 Ethiopians were still living in transient accommodations several years after their arrival in the country. They are confined to absorption centers that are badly overcrowded, he said.
Gordon, who visited the absorption centers last week, attributed the housing shortage to the soaring price of homes and rental accommodations. The price rise has been caused in part by the slowdown of the construction industry, which is heavily dependent on Arab labor from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
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