Israel Readies New Push To Deport African Immigrants
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Israel is preparing to start a large-scale campaign to pressure immigrants from Sudan and Eritrea to voluntarily leave the country after the September holidays, Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Wednesday.
According to Sa’ar, the measure comes in the wake of a third country’s agreement to take in the immigrants or serve as a transit point on the way back to their countries of origin. Sa’ar said that Hagai Hadas, the prime minister’s special envoy, had obtained the third country’s consent, which was approved recently by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein.
The minister made the announcement during a meeting of the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee.
“In the first stage, we will focus on raising awareness within the population of infiltrators while helping them with the logistics of their departure, including costs, airfare and dealing with the possessions they accumulated while they were in Israel,” Sa’ar said.
During the second stage, which will begin after the upcoming Jewish holidays, the state will set a deadline by which “certain sectors within the infiltrator population” will be asked to “willingly” leave the country.
For more go to Haaretz
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