Israel suspends plan to send African migrants to West
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has
suspended a deal with the UN to give residency to thousands of African
migrants in exchange for Western nations resettling the same number.
Hours
after announcing the deal, he put the plan on hold, saying he would
speak with residents of south Tel Aviv, where many of the migrants live.
The arrangement had drawn opposition from within his governing coalition.
It replaced a plan for mass deportations to Africa.
Under
the five-year agreement with the UN refugee agency, some 16,250 African
migrants who entered the country illegally, many of them seeking
asylum, would be resettled in Western nations, which Mr Netanyahu had
said included Germany, Italy and Canada.
For each migrant
resettled overseas, Israel would give "temporary residence" to a migrant
in Israel, Mr Netanyahu told a news conference earlier on Monday.
It
replaced a controversial plan to forcibly send male African migrants to
third countries in Africa if they did not go voluntarily.
The nations were reported to be Uganda and Rwanda and Israel's Supreme Court had blocked deportations meant to begin on Sunday.
In
a late-night Facebook post announcing the suspension of the UN deal, Mr
Netanyahu said that earlier agreement had failed because Rwanda had
pulled out.
He said he would rethink the terms of the UN accord
after listening to the views of Israelis. Mr Netanyahu had faced
criticism from anti-migrant groups in southern Tel Aviv and powerful
politicians in his own governing coalition for striking the deal.
Naftali
Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party, called the plan a "total
surrender to the false campaign in the media" and said the credibility
of the government was at stake.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked was
among ministers saying they did not know anything about the agreement
before it was announced. Culture Minister Miri Regev expressed concern
about the "identity and social fabric" of Israel if the migrants were
allowed to stay, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR told the BBC it had not been contacted by
the Israeli government about its intention to suspend the deal.
"We haven't had an official communication," said spokesman William Spindler.
He described the proposed agreement as a "win-win situation".
Where are the migrants from?
Most
of the 42,000 African migrants in Israel are from Eritrea - a one-party
state whose leaders have been accused of crimes against humanity by a
UN inquiry - and war-torn Sudan.
They say they fled danger at home
and that it is not safe to return to another African country, but
Israel considers the majority of African asylum seekers to be economic
migrants.
Most of them entered from Egypt several years ago,
before a new fence was built along the desert border. This has ended
most illegal crossings.
How controversial is this issue?
The
decision in January to offer the migrants a cash lump-sum and a plane
ticket to leave Israel voluntarily or otherwise face forced expulsion
was controversial in Israel.
Some critics in the country and among
the Jewish community abroad - including former ambassadors and
Holocaust survivors - said the plan was unethical and a stain on
Israel's international image. The UN refugee agency said it violated
local and international laws, and large protests were held in Israel.
Mr Netanyahu said the opposition was "baseless and absurd" and that Israel would resettle "genuine refugees".
Activists,
however, noted that only a handful of Eritreans and Sudanese had been
recognised as refugees by Israel since the country took over the
processing of applications from the UN in 2009.
BBC
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