Human chain against Israel move to deport illegal migrants
AFP
TEL AVIV - Thousands of Israeli and migrant workers, including children, formed a human chain on Saturday in Tel Aviv in protest at Israel's decision to deport families of illegal aliens.
AFP correspondents said that the protesters gathered on Lewinsky street in a working-class district of Tel Aviv near the city's main bus terminal, which houses many migrants, most of them from Africa.
Israel had set an August 1 deadline to expel illegal migrants and their children, even those who grew up in Jewish state, triggering an outcry among human rights groups.
But human rights groups say this is not enough and have been demanding that illegal migrants who have children be given residency status in Israel.
"We are happy about that the decision to expel the children of immigrants has been suspended but this threat must be removed once and for all through a vote," a delegate of the Kav la Oved pro-migrant group told public radio.
In July the interior ministry stepped up a crackdown against illegal migrants, sending agents on the streets to track them down.
In 2006 Israel adopted a one-off decision allowing 600 families of illegal immigrants to apply for residency status in the Jewish state.
According to the interior ministry, some 300,000 illegal aliens -- including 100,000 migrants, tourists who overstayed their visit and Palestinians -- live in Israel which is home to seven million inhabitants.
But human rights groups say that these figures are inflated.
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