Israel Confirms Plans to Deport African Migrants

After receiving notice of approval from his cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed plans to deport African migrants currently seeking asylum in his country, according to Reuters. In December 2017, Israel’s Parliament passed a bill granting the government the right to deport African asylum-seekers. These migrants are now being notified they must relocate or accept imprisonment. The government is offering an airplane ticket and financial compensation to those who acquiesce; the alternative is being sent to detention centers within Israel. The government has offered up to $3,500 to migrants if they leave Israel within 90 days. Women, children, and parents are currently excused from deportation. Israeli officials, however, have indicated that this exemption is subject to change.

Al Jazeera reports that a letter from an Israeli government representative also promises that deported African migrants will be relocated to “a safe third country that will absorb you and give you a residency visa that will allow you to work in that country.”

The letter also pledged that the third country wouldn’t relocate the migrants to their home country. Rwanda and Uganda were listed as potential destinations. That same week, however, both Rwanda and Uganda dismissed these claims. Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe tweeted that “Rwanda has no deal whatsoever with Israel to host any African migrant from that country,” blasting the suppositions as “fake news.” Similarly, Ugandan Foreign Minister Okello Oryem decried Israel’s claims as “absolute rubbish.” Nonetheless, there have been multiple reports of a deal between Israel and Rwanda in which the former offered the latter $5,000 per migrant it accepts.

Netanyahu governs as a member of the conservative Likud party, which has pushed a nationalist agenda based on national-security policy and has expressed concerns about the implications of a rising African presence. At the same time, immigration into Israel from Africa has grown, particularly from Eritrea and Sudan.

According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), 27,500 Eritreans and 7,800 Sudanese are currently residing in Israel as asylum seekers. According to the Israeli government, the African residents seeking asylum are not refugees but illegal immigrants looking to exploit Israel’s economy. Netanyahu has labeled them “infiltrators.”

Not long after relocations began, some 80 cases have been reported of deportees risking their lives venturing from Africa to Europe after leaving Israel, according to Al Jazeera. The UNHCR accordingly called upon Israel to reverse the policy.

The Jerusalem Post reports that protests against the government’s policy are also emerging in Israel. Upon receiving the 20,000 deportation notices, Eritrean and Sudanese migrants gathered outside the Rwandan Embassy in the Israeli city of Herzliya. Migrants also protested the Rwandan ambassador for his suspected deportation deal with Netanyahu. One 23-year-old South Sudanese man pleaded, “Don’t sell me to Rwanda.”