Israel has started action on its controversial plan to deport 40,000 Africans as international outrage grows

godfred akoto

February 5, 2018 6:42 AM

Israel is paying each immigrant $3,500 plus an air ticket to leave

Israel on Sunday started distributing notices to African immigrants it calls "infiltrators" as it seeks to deport over 36,000 of them mainly from Eritrea and Sudan.

According to reports in the Israeli media ,first notices will be issued to single men without children, numbering almost 20,000 men. The men, who have to renew their residence visas every two months, are receiving the deportation notices with their visa renewal. They have been threatened with indefinite incarceration if they do not leave.

Israel’s Cabinet last month approved a plan and the budget to deport thousands of migrants from Sudan and Eritrea.

Prior to that, the Population and Immigration Authority notified migrants from Sudan and Eritrea that as of Jan. 1, they must return to their own countries or to a third nation, or be sent to jail until they are deported. According to the government plan, migrants who choose to leave by March 31 will receive a payment of £2,748 ($3,500) as well as free airfare and other incentives, according to reports.

For now, deportation notices will not be issued to women, children, fathers of children, anyone recognised as a victim of slavery or human trafficking, and those who had requested asylum by the end of 2017 but haven’t gotten a response, Haaretz reported.

There currently are up to 40,000 Eritreans and Sudanese living in Israel, including 5,000 children.

Human rights activists in Israel and major U.S. Jewish organisations have urged the government not to go ahead with the plan to force the migrants to choose between jail and deportation.

godfred akoto