UNHCR Israel

Israel: The protests prompted a rare and strongly worded statement from the U.N. refugee agency, saying that Israel's incarceration of migrants, including family breadwinners, caused "hardship and suffering" and was "not in line with" a 1951 world treaty on the treatment of refugees, according to Reuters. Dozens more have been summoned for detention, among them men with wives and children, rights activists and the UNHCR said and TEL AVIV - Thousands of African migrants, many holding banners demanding freedom for compatriots jailed by Israel, protested on Sunday in a Tel Aviv square against a new open-ended detention law which allows migrants to be sent to a desert prison. Human rights groups say more than 300 people have been arrested since the law, which allows authorities to detain migrants without valid visas indefinitely, was passed by Israel's parliament three weeks ago. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.