The Saharonim Prison is an Israeli detention facility for African asylum seekers located in the Negev desert.
On January 10, 2012 the Israeli parliament (Knesset) voted a controversial amendment bill to the 1954 Prevention of Infiltration Law[1] that made detention for up to three years possible for African immigrants, without trial.
In the spring of 2012 the construction of the Saharonim Prison was started, exempt from most local and national regulations, as requested by the Israeli Defense Ministry.
[9] In September 2013 the Supreme Court of Israel ruled that imprisoning African migrants for long periods is unconstitutional.
As of January 2014, some 2,500 asylum seekers are housed at Saharonim and Ktziot prisons, 41 of them are children imprisoned with their parents.