Israel renewed its policy of jailing Sudanese refugees crossing the Egyptian border illegally into Israel.
The number of Sudanese sneaking into Israel has risen sharply in recent weeks, with more than 200 in the last week alone, according to Ha aretz. Israel s policy of imprisonment was suspended in April following an outcry by human rights groups, but since then the number of Sudanese seeking refuge in the Jewish state has climbed vertiginously.
Some Sudanese refugees had been placed in hotels in Beersheba, but the new policy puts them in Israeli prisons until their applications for asylum, if submitted, are processed.
Sudanese are fleeing the fighting in their country by the hundreds of thousands, and many have headed through Egypt for Israel, the closest democratic state. The Israel-Egypt border is not completely fenced, but punishing desert conditions make crossing the border difficult and treacherous.
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