THE LAWS WHICH REGULATE FOREIGN NATIONALS
DETENTION
The Entry to Israel Law: The Entry to Israel Law allows the administrative
detention of foreign nationals who have no legal status or who have violated the
conditions of their visa. The law states that an illegal resident who is detained for
more than 60 days will be conditionally released under certain circumstances.10
The purpose of the detention is to facilitate the deportation of the detainee, and
not to punish the individual or deter others from following him.
Yet, information gathered by the HRM over the years proves that the detention
period is mostly determined by the vacancies in the prisons and not by laws.
The Entry to Israel Law allows release from detention on humanitarian grounds,
even if the 60 days do not elapse. The HRM’s experience shows that in severe
medical cases, in cases when the detainee was a trafficking or a torture
survivor, or if detention has caused a minor to remain without a guardian, the
Administrative Review Tribunal facilitated the release of the detainee under
reasonable conditions.
A migrant detained under the Entry Law can be deported from Israel within 72
hours from the issuing of a deportation order. When migrants do not cooperate
with their deportation processes, they can be held in detention for many years.
The HRM currently represents a citizen of the Guinea who has been detained in
Saharonim prison for more than nine years due to his lack of cooperation.
The Anti-Infiltration Law: Since June 2012, the authorities started implementing
amendments to the Anti-Infiltration Law on asylum seekers. The third version of the
Law, allowed asylum seekers who entered through the Egyptian desert, to be held
for three years in administrative detention and asylum seekers from enemy states,
such as Sudan, to be held indefinitely.11 The High Court of Justice abrogated the
third amendment on September 2013,12 and on December 2013 the Israeli Knesset
legislated the fourth amendment13 allowing one year’s administrative detention of