Only 18 African infiltrators have entered Israel illegally since January 2016, the lowest number in recent years, the Interior Ministry's Population and Immigration Authority quarterly report has found. According to the report, drafted by the Policy Planning Department in the Immigration Authority, 40,274 infiltrators who entered Israel without permits live in the country, the majority of them from Eritrea (29,014) and Sudan (8,022), with the rest from other countries. An additional 14,837 have filed asylum requests to remain in Israel. Before the construction of the Israel-Egypt border fence, a project proposed by the Israel Defense Forces and authorized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, infiltrators poured into Israel from the Sinai Desert by the thousands. "Since 2012, when progress was made on building a ground obstacle on the southern border and a legislative amendment was applied to prolong the length of time for which illegal migrants can be held in custody, there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of infiltrators entering Israel illegally," the report read. The report also states that since May 2016, not one African infiltrator has illegally entered Israel via the border fence with Egypt. Some of the infiltrators have been granted permits to remain in Israel under the government's policy of issuing a "temporary delay of deportation to their country of origin," which allows them to remain in Israel until they can safely return to their homelands. The highest influx of illegal migrants was in 2011, when 17,268 Africans entered Israel.
