The Israeli government has announced it will build a detention centre for the growing number of people entering the country illegally.
Since 2005, there has been an influx of Africans, the vast majority of them Sudanese and Eritreans. More than 35,000 of them have reached Israel via Egypt.
At the end of November, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared: "This growing wave threatens Israelis' jobs, is changing the character of the country and we must stop it." He added that "there has been talk for years but now we are not talking".
His solution, subsequently approved by the cabinet, is to build
a 10,000-capacity detention facility - or in his parlance a "housing centre" - over the next six months near Israel's southern border. A government statement said that it will "supply the infiltrators with their basic needs, such as lodging, food, drink and health needs".
