The Holot open detention center in the Negev is scheduled to close at midnight on the night between Wednesday and Thursday, despite widespread public criticism of the plan to deport the asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan who stay at the facility.
Ahead of the facility's closure, hearings were held to those who were not able to submit asylum requests by the beginning of 2018 or those whose requests were rejected, and dozens of them will be transferred to the nearby Saharonim Prison indefinitely.
The requests submitted before the beginning of 2018 have not yet been examined, and so those asylum seekers are currently not facing deportation. Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has instructed to gradually release them over the last week.
Upon their release, the 480 asylum seekers still awaiting answers on their requests will receive a temporary residency visa, which limits where they could live and work, barring them from the seven cities that have the largest concentrations of asylum seekers: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Eilat, Netanya, Bnei Brak and Petah Tikvah.
Holot was opened at the end of 2013 following a series of government decision and the passing of the "Prevention of Infiltration Law." The facility's declared purpose was to reduce the concentrations of asylum seekers in cities, particularly in southern Tel Aviv. But asylum seekers and aid groups claim the facility was also meant to make their stay in Israel unbearable and thus encourage them to "willingly" leave.
Over the four years it was open, over 13,000 asylum seekers stayed at the facility—all of them men—for different periods of time. In accordance with a High Court of Justice ruling, the maximum stay time was shortened to one year.
