The Islamic Movement announced Friday it provided assistance to 42 Sudanese refugees the Israel Defense Forces released in Be'er Sheva after they had been caught entering Israel illegally from Egypt.

A group of Bedouin found the refugees in Be'er Sheva's industrial district, and alerted volunteer aid workers and the media to their presence. The Bedouin then took the refugees to their nearby village to take care of them over the weekend.

The Islamic Movement said it will find the refugees housing in the Negev towns of Rahat and Kseifa.

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The refugees, who are Christian, fled Muslim persecution in Sudan.

Volunteers from the non-profit Azik organization of the Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Economic Development, and the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation, helped the refugees make sleeping arrangements and brought them food.

Some of the refugees were taken to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva, where a volunteer doctor checked the children for illnesses.

Approximately 1000 refugees from Africa have infiltrated Israel since the beginning of 2007, of which about 750 are from Sudan. The rest are from states such as Eritrea and the Ivory Coast.

The IDF catches many of the refugees upon their entry into Israel. With no fixed solution to the problem of their status or governmental body set up to deal with them, the army regularly releases them from detention with no arrangements for their basic needs of housing and sustenance to fend for themselves in Be'er Sheva.