Israel’s border patrols have started rounding up hundreds and possibly thousands of Jordanians who are in Israel illegally, amid plans to deport them, reported the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
The operation, dubbed A New Order, came after reports that tens of thousands of Jordanians had flooded into Israel and that the government was “treating them with kid gloves to avoid a confrontation with the Hashemite Kingdom, which has restricted the return of Palestinians.”
Police officials said that the police inspector-general and the internal security minister had decided to “turn the matter over to the Border Police with a mandate to locate and detain the illegal Jordanians in Israel.”
"This is problem is well known," said the offiical. "The main idea of this operation is to get to all those who are in the country illegally." He said that they would try to deport those they rounded up.
He also said that the police were planning to deal harshly with Israelis who were illegally hosting and employing the Jordanians.
"We want to reduce this phenomenon as much as possible," he told the paper.
According to the paper, most of the Jordanians are of Palestinian origin, and cited economic reasons for their presence in Israel.
The exact number is not known, but some government and security officials, put it at as high as 40,000, said the paper – Albawaba.com
