The hundreds of African migrants in Israel facing eviction have reportedly opted for jail over deportation as officials of Israel serve them with notices to leave the country.
The Israeli government issued the notice which would affect thousands of these migrants who would be compensated to enable them travel back to their countries.
In January this year Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the intended deportation plan would affect about 38,000 migrants who entered the country illegally.
Each migrant is to be given up to $3,500 to leave to their home countries. All migrants who refuse to leave will be jailed by the government of Israel from April.
But AFP is reporting that at a detention centre in Israel’s Negev desert, African migrants facing deportation say they would rather be jailed than sent to a country they know nothing about.
One of the migrants, Abda Ishmael, a 28-year-old from Eritrea said “I won’t go there. Guys who were here and went to Rwanda and Uganda – we saw what happened to them.”
Ishmael is part of over 1200 migrants staying in Holot, an open facility housing them which is set to be shut down on April 1.
Another migrant, Shishay Tewelde Medihin, 24 said Rwanda and Uganda countries reported to be destinations for those to be deported are “death countries” and Israel is “risking my life”.
Local media Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reports that people from Eritrea and Sudan make up a significant number of migrants in Israel.
Meanwhile hundreds of protesters have demonstrated outside the Rwandan Embassy in the Israeli city of Herzeliya against the new migration laws.
Some held banners reading “deported to death because I’m black” with the protesters calling on Paul Kagame, the AU chairman and president of Rwanda, to oppose Israel’s plan to expel migrants.
The Prime Minister of Israel Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that allowing African migrants into the country unchecked is a threat to Israel’s Jewish character.
Source: Africafeeds.com
