The following information was published by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Thirty-six illegal work infiltrators crossed the border from Egypt into Israel in December. All were detained and none reached Israel’s cities. Additionally, last week, not one infiltrator crossed the border, for the first time since 2006.

9,207 illegals – including 3,920 from Africa – left Israel in 2012.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, “We have succeeded in blocking the phenomenon of illegal infiltrators. After that there were months this year in which thousands of infiltrators crossed the border and reached Israel’s cities, it has been several months now that no infiltrator has reached Eilat, Beersheva, Tel Aviv or any Israeli community. At the same time, we are in the midst of the process of repatriating infiltrators to their countries of origin, under the supervision of Chaggai Hadas in cooperation with the Population and Migration Authority, which has been doing its work professionally and humanely. For several months now, hundreds of infiltrators have been leaving here for their countries of origin and thousands will soon do so every month until the tens of thousands of people who are here illegally return to their countries of origin.”

Entry of infiltrators into Israel – 2012

January – 2,295

February – 1,503

March – 1,730

April – 1,083

May – 2,031

June – 928

July – 268

August – 199

September – 138

October – 49

November – 40

December – 36

All infiltrators who entered since June were sent directly to holding facilities and not to Israeli cities.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)