Israel releases asylum-seekers

Israel on Tuesday began releasing over 1,150 African asylum-seekers from an open detention centre following a Supreme Court ruling, sources said.

About 600 of the asylum seekers held at the Holot Detention Centre in the southern Negev Desert were released, while the remaining 578 will be released on Wednesday, an Israeli immigration official said.

The move came after Israel's Supreme Court ruled on August 11 that asylum seekers can be held for a maximum of 12 months instead of 20, as the government-sponsored infiltration bill suggested, Xinhua news agency reported.

The asylum seekers are mostly from Sudan and Eritrea.

The Infiltration Prevention Act, which was approved in December 2014, enables the detention of asylum-seekers who entered the country illegally. The Supreme Court in August found the law constitutional despite objection from human rights groups, but limited the time of imprisonment.

It's estimated that more than 50,000 asylum-seekers from war-torn Sudan and Eritrea are in Israel.