The detention centre is to be built at or near the site of a former prison camp for Palestinians in the southern Negev desert, near Israel’s border with Egypt. It will be run by the prison service, and detainees will not be allowed to work. People could languish in the refugee camp for an extended period, even years, without work or education. It is in violation of the 1951 United Nations convention on refugees, to which Israel is a signatory and which states that the country the refugee arrives in is responsible for his or her welfare, health and rights. These rights include freedom of movement, access to documents and the right to work.

An anti-migrant xenophobia is normalized by PM Netanyahu, saying: “The wave of infiltrators must be stopped. The wave is increasing and is threatening Israeli jobs. We will not stop war refugees. But we must stop the mass entry of illegal migrants because of the harsh implications for Israel’s character”.

Physicians for Human Rights said, “To incarcerate victims of torture, rape, war and murder without time limits, without judicial review and in contravention of international conventions for the protection of refugees will be a mark of Cain on the State of Israel.”

The group said that the plan would not only not stop the refugees coming via Egypt, it would worsen their physical and psychological health.

A senior government official in Jerusalem said that Israel was ready to renew its offer to pay millions of dollars to any African or Western country willing to absorb the influx of migrants attempting to infiltrate Israel.

Of course, as Canadians may remember, "none is too many".

From Israel's Haaretz on the topic: 

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the Hotline for Migrant Workers yesterday made an urgent appeal to the prime minister after his bureau announced the plan, saying that Israel continues to breach its obligations to asylum-seekers.

"This is another and very shocking level of continuing disregard by the government of Israel for its moral and legal obligations both to refugees and asylum seekers and to children - both groups of which receive the greatest protection in international law, law in various countries and in Israeli law," wrote attorneys Oded Feller and Osnat Cohen-Lifshitz, lawyers for the two organizations wrote.