CAIRO: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the defense ministry to expedite a border fence along the southern border with Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula to combat the continued rise in African migrants attempting to sneak into the country. His statement on Sunday came less than 24 hours after 68 African migrants, from Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea were arrested by Egypt border police as they attempted to cross the barbed-wire fence along the border. Speaking at a discussion at his office, Netanyahu said “the goal is to turn the tables, and take all necessary actions to have the number of illegal immigrants that leave Israel be larger than the number entering Israel.” Israel has been deporting a large number of African migrants from the country in the past month, but last week the country's defense ministry officials spoke with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, where they confirmed that they would not send any Eritreans back to their country, as the UN refugee agency said they face life-threatening situations if returned. At the meeting, the Interior Ministry presented data on the number of migrants that crossed the Israeli-Egyptian border during June, the Ha'aretz newspaper reported. According to ministry statistics, the number of migrants that crossed the border have been reduced by more than half, from 2,031 in May to 928 in June. Still, Israel wants to implement its border project after they have repeatedly said their Egyptian counterparts are not doing enough to stop the flow of migrants. Egypt, for its part, has continued its “shoot-to-stop” policy in the Sinai Peninsula, and have killed dozens of Africans over the past few years attempting to enter Israel.
