Several hundred Sudanese citizens living in Israel demonstrated on Sunday afternoon at the Interior Ministry branch office in Tel Aviv, protesting Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s initiative to imprison some 15,000 Sudanese asylum seekers.

The protesters carried signs that read “Instead of protection, we got racism” and “Where is the Jewish morality?”

Demonstrators also called on the UN Human Rights Council to intercede on their behalf.

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Responding to the rally, Yishai expressed his sympathy for the situation of the Sudanese refugees, and for “all citizens of the world who have suffered misfortune.”

However, Yishai told Israel Radio, as an Israeli minister his responsibility was to the citizens of Israel, and in order to ensure “the security of Israeli citizens,” he would not relinquish his goal of removing “all infiltrators” from the country.

Yishai added that the Sudanese and the organizations fighting for their well-being should know that by leaving of their own accord rather than being forced out by the Ministry of Interior, the Sudanese nationals would be making things much easier for themselves.