Illegal migrants in Israel arrested on criminal charges, sometimes dozens of times, continue to commit crimes after being released, new data from the Israel Police obtained by Israel Hayom shows.
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Unlike Israeli citizens, who can be tracked by law enforcement agencies, illegal migrants – who live below the official radar – are harder to monitor.
From January 2020 to August 2021, 44 criminal case files were opened on a single migrant man.
"This isn't normal. The country is losing control over them," a law enforcement official told Israel Hayom, discussing the data about crimes committed by the illegal migrant population. "It's not normal that there are illegal residents with over 40 case files against them in a year and a half."
The police data was released in response to a freedom of information request filed by activist group Otef Tahana Merkazit, which is battling to stem the influx of illegal migrants into Israel.
According to the figures, in the past 19 months, police have opened 7,150 criminal cases against 1,531 illegal migrants. Estimates from the Interior Ministry's Population Registry puts the number of adult illegals residing in Israel at approximately 30,000 – meaning that 5.3% of adult illegal migrants have been the subject of a criminal complaint in the past 19 months.
The highest number of complaints against a single illegal migrant stands at 44, but the police data shows that 12 other individuals have been the subject of 30-42 complaints each. Another 42 migrants have been the subject of 20-30 complaints each, and 139 have been the subject of 10-20 complaints each.
There were 537 illegal migrants who had been involved in three to 10 complaints each, and 268 illegal migrants were the subject of two criminal complaints each. Meanwhile, 543 illegal migrants had a single criminal complaint.
"Unlike Israeli citizens, it's much harder to track illegal migrants because they don't have a regular address," a law enforcement official explained. "That makes it difficult for the police to prevent the next crime."
In 2020, the Tel Aviv district saw the most complaints filed against illegal migrants. The most common complaints were public disorder (44.1%); complaints about physical contact and/or attacks (39.9%); and property crimes (25.7%).
Complaints against illegal migrants involving sexual assault and other sexual offenses rose slightly from 2019 (which saw 125 such files opened) to 126 in 2020, the police data showed. The number of complaints involving finances, driving license violations, and administrative violations rose form 109 in 2019 to 114 in 2020.
The number of complaints related to security crimes involving illegal migrants rose from 37 in 2019 to 46 in 2020.
"We've known for years that the [south Tel Aviv neighborhood] Neve Shaanan leads the crime stats in Tel Aviv," a statement from Otef Tahana Merkazit read. 'We also know that Neve Shaanan is patrolled at the same level as east Jerusalem, and we know about every crime that isn't reported in the media," the statement continued.
The organization went on to report rampant "fights and stabbings on a daily basis," as well as "robberies, drug dealing, trade in stolen property, and prostitution" by illegal migrants.
According to the group, "the numbers reported by the Israel Police are just the tip of the iceberg. There are thousands of incidents of crime in the migrant population that aren't reported, including serious domestic violence, and thousands of incidents in which civilians don't complaint or their complaint isn't investigated, including vandalism, rioting, and gangs of kids who roam the streets at night throwing rocks. It's clear to everyone that the police won't really investigate, or that the next day a judge will release the migrant."
The group went on to say that "in Israel, judges don't ignore crime – they encourage crime as long as it doesn't reach their expensive neighborhoods. We demand that Justice Minister [Gideon Sa'ar] and Interior Minister [Ayelet Shaked] convene an urgent meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice committee and invite the president of the Supreme Court. It's time for her and her judges to give us an explanation."
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