Hundreds of African asylum seekers took the streets of Tel Aviv in Israel on Saturday night, protesting a new law that deducts 20 percent of their salaries.
Under the new law, which came into effect on May 1, a fifth of their salary is required to be deposited by the employers in a state-run fund. The money would become accessible for the migrants only if they leave Israel.
The march was attended by asylum seekers and their Israeli supporters, including many restaurant owners, who are the main employers of asylum seekers in Tel Aviv.
The protesters waved signs and placards reading "it's impossible to survive with 20 percent less" and "we fled a war, left with nothing."
According to official figures, as of the end of February, there were about 22,000 asylum seekers in Israel. The vast majority of them arrived from Eritrea and Sudan.
Israeli law and international conventions do not allow sending them back to their countries of origin, where they might face persecutions and even death.
The recent law is the latest measure that the government said it has employed to "persuade" the asylum seekers to leave the country.
In 2012, the parliament approved a government-led legislation, known as the "anti-infiltration law," which criminalized asylum seekers' entry to Israel.
The government also built a detention center for them in a remote region of the Negev Desert in southern Israel, called Holot, where they can be held indefinitely.
SOURCE: Xinhua
