Published: 2 April 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Netanyahu suspends asylum seeker deal With UN After right-wing pushback (Haaretz)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night he is suspending the implementation of a deal with the United Nations announced only hours earlier that would see Israel deport asylum seekers to Western countries rather than Africa
Hours after announcing it, Netanyahu suspends deal to let 16,000 migrants stay (Times of Israel)
Buckling under criticism, PM says he hears 'residents of south Tel Aviv,' will only reexamine agreement after consultations with them and interior minister
Caught off guard, key Netanyahu allies fume at deal signed with UN on asylum seekers (Haaretz)
Netanyahu failed to share developments with Likud leaders and other lawmakers; Key coalition member Bennett: Deal 'will turn Israel into a paradise for infiltrators'
AND SEE
Israel scraps plan to deport African asylum seekers (Guardian)
Israel has scrapped a plan to force thousands of African asylum seekers to choose between deportation and an indefinite spell in jail, striking a deal instead to resettle many in western countries including Canada, Italy and Germany.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had reached “unprecedented understandings” with the UN refugee agency to send more than 16,000 migrants and refugees to western countries that were willing to take them. In exchange, Israel has indicated it will regularise the legal status of many of those remaining.
Israel’s original deportation plan, which envisaged many asylum seekers being sent to third countries in Africa in exchange for cash payments, had run into serious problems including Rwanda and Uganda’s refusal to accept the refugees after they learned that the deportations could happen by force.
High Court demand scuppered migrant deportation plan (Times of Israel)
Rwanda said to have refused to deploy inspectors; Netanyahu says asylum seekers who stay will be sent to kibbutzim. Rwanda reportedly pulled out of a deal with Israel to accept thousands of deported African migrants after the High Court of Justice gave instructions that the resettlement program be monitored by Israeli inspectors. That decision paved the way for Monday’s agreement with the UN that will see many asylum seekers settle in Israel, Hadashot TV news reported.
The last straw for an already reluctant Rwanda came after the court told the government in Kigali that if it wants to go ahead with the deportation plan, it must follow up on the welfare of migrants on its soil.
Photo: Israeli protest against the expulsion of African asylum seekers in March (Meged Gozani)
