Israel’s immigration police have arrested 213 people, more than half of them from South Sudan, in a series of raids aimed at rounding up and deporting illegal immigrants, officials said on Tuesday.
Officials from the Population and Migration Authority said a total of 140 people had been arrested on Sunday and Monday, with another 73 picked up in nationwide raids on Tuesday morning.
Sunday’s raids, which began in the early morning, saw police round up some 25 immigrants, around a third of them from South Sudan, but the campaign gathered speed on Monday, when 115 people were arrested, spokeswoman Sabine Hadad said. “Yesterday, 115 illegal immigrants were arrested, of which 105 were from South Sudan,” she said of the mass round-up which is being referred to as “Operation Returning Home.”
