Israel To Begin Deportation Of African Migrants

The Israeli government on Sunday started handing out eviction notices to over 20,000 male African migrants living in the country.

The migrants have been offered $3500 and a plane ticket to a safe destination in sub-Saharan Africa.

The refugees have been given two months to comply or face jail time.

The fate of some 37,000 Africans in Israel is posing a moral dilemma for a state that was itself created as a haven for Jews who were escaping persecution.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government is under pressure from its nationalist voter base to expel the migrants.

The government said the migrants have to leave as they are “infiltrators” who are actually looking for work, not asylum.

Speaking to Army Radio, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri said Israel’s first obligation was to its own citizens, not the migrants.

“They are not numbers, they are people, they are human and I am full of compassion and mercy.

“But the small state of Israel cannot contain such a vast number of illegal infiltrators.”

Liberalists, including rabbis, and a small group of survivors of the Nazi Holocaust have berated the government’s stance.

They instead preach compassion especially form a nation with Israel’s history.

Rights groups advocating on behalf of the migrants say many fled abuse and war. They opined that forcing them to leave even if to a different country might spell an end to their lives.

On Thursday, a group of 36 Holocaust survivors sent a letter to Netanyahu asking him not to deport the migrants.

Rabbi Lau, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and a Holocaust survivor, said in a statement that the issue required “as much compassion, empathy and mercy that can possibly be marshalled.

“The experiences of the Jewish people over the ages underscore this commitment.”

One of the affected refugees, Ainom, an Eritrean, said, “I don’t know what to do.

“Rwanda, Uganda are not my countries, what will a third country help me,’’ Eritrean Ainom said, after receiving an eviction notice.

The deportation notices do not name the country migrants will be flown to but Netanyahu has said it will be a safe destination.

Rights groups have named Uganda and Rwanda as possible host countries.