"The Israeli government is considering establishing work camps in the south of the country, where illegal migrant workers will receive shelter, food and medical care, Army Radio reported Wednesday. In exchange, illegal migrants would perform manual labor outside the camps, but would not earn a salary.They would stay at the camp until their asylum claims are decided, which could take months or years.

The proposal, part of the effort to address the problems posed by illegal migrants, would place asylum seekers at jobs in communities in the Negev and Arava. Their salaries would go to the state, in order to fund the camps. . .

In addition to the opposition of human rights groups, communities in the south may also not respond favorably to the plan. In April 2008, during a court hearing on the government's policy of putting asylum seekers in the northern and southern peripheries, north of Hadera and south of Gedera, an affidavit was presented to the court on the migrants' employment prospects. In the document, Sigal Rosen of the Hotline for Migrant Workers declared that kibbutzim in the south had not shown an interest in hiring the migrants. . .

Amnesty International also criticized the proposal yesterday. The group's Israel director, Itay Epstein, said: "The crazy idea of housing refugees in work camps in the south by force is contrary to international law and to every international treaty to which Israel is a party." He added, "Israel is obligated to grant refugees and asylum seekers who come knocking on its door a safe haven [as well as certain rights], which include the right to live in dignity and to work and earn a living. They certainly should not be employed by force, as we profit from the distress of survivors of genocide and persecution."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126057.html

I wonder if they'll be posting "Arbeit Macht Frei" signs on the camps.

My advice to any illegal immigrant in Israel is to convert to Judaism. It can be done at the airport.

Once you are "in", the world's your oyster. Cheap housing with minimal taxes on land stolen from some poor Palestinian Christian or Muslim; a sense of entitlement as provided by God three thousand years ago; effortless superiority over the untermenschen whose land you occupy; carte blanche (if the fancy takes you) to attack any passing farmer or child while the IDF protects you from retaliation.

The downside? well, there's national service (look at all the bewildered Falasha -Ethiopians- in In the IDF wearing their ill-fitting uniforms and not having a clue as to what they're doing or where they are).

And there's the risk of suicide while on national service. The Israelis don't like to publish these figures and so mine are three or four years out of date....but deaths in the IDF from Palestinians...zero.
Deaths by suicide 37.

You see, the workings of conscience.