Israel on Tuesday announced that it has abandoned controversial plans to expel African migrants who entered the Jewish state illegally, after failing to find a nation willing to host them.
The plan had targeted about 42,000 migrants of Eritrean and Sudanese origin living in Israel and denied refugee status.
Government legal advisers informed the Israeli Supreme Court of the plan’s cancelation after certain unspecified nations refused to host the migrants, a government source said.
“At this stage, the possibility of removal to a third country is no longer relevant,” the advisers said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously mentioned Rwanda as a possible host nation and, earlier this month, Uganda said it was “considering” an Israeli proposal to accept the deportees.
The deportation plan attracted a wave of criticism, including from the UN refugee agency, Holocaust survivors and parts of Israeli civil society.
The Israeli government originally announced a plan under which it would present the migrants with US$3,500 and the opportunity to leave on their own accord or face indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu agreed to cancel the plan, saying a new agreement with the UN would allow 16,000 migrants to be transferred to “developed countries like Canada, Germany or Italy.”
In exchange, Israel would give residency to an equal number of migrants, but the prime minister canceled the plan several hours later, after caving in to pressure from his right-wing base.
Shortly after news of the cancelation broke, Netanyahu tweeted that he had instructed Israeli Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri “to immediately prepare for the reopening of the detention facilities to the infiltrators” and to set up “means to find a solution to the problem.”
The prime minister was referring to the February closure of the Holot detention center in southern Israel.
The presence of migrants in Israel has become a key political issue and Netanyahu is already under heavy pressure due to a string of graft investigations.
He has repeatedly referred to them as “not refugees, but illegal infiltrators.”
About 200 migrants detained for refusing to leave Israel were released following an Israeli Supreme Court ruling.
Israel’s highest judicial authority had ordered their release because of the government’s inability to conclude an agreement with third-party host nations.
Human rights groups have long condemned Israel for its immigration policy and treatment of Africans seeking asylum.
Most of the migrants arrived in Israel after 2007, mainly from the Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Amnesty International welcomed the cancelation, but voiced concern over the continued practice of “voluntary” expulsions.
“Israel is still conducting what it calls ‘voluntary’ deportations, though in reality there is nothing voluntary about them,” the London-based rights watchdog said in a statement. “Israel remains under the obligation not to transfer anyone to a country where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations.”
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