Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel’s cabinet voted on Sunday to close a migrant detention centre, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an agreement to deport 40,000 Africans who entered the country illegally.
Ministers unanimously approved plans to shutter the Holot centre in southern Israel and gave migrants a three-month deadline to leave the country or face deportation, said the interior and public security ministries.
“The infiltrators will have the option to be imprisoned or leave the country,” the public security ministry said in a statement.
Israeli official figures from June 30 show a total of 38,043 African migrants in the country.
They include 27,494 Eritreans and 7,869 Sudanese, and their presence in south Tel Aviv has raised discontent among Israelis there and elsewhere.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s vote, Netanyahu noted that after building a fence on the Egyptian border and deporting some 20,000 African migrants through various deals, Israel has reached the third stage of its efforts — “accelerated removal”.
“This removal is taking place thanks to an international agreement I reached that enables us to remove the 40,000 infiltrators remaining, remove them without their consent,” he told ministers.
“This will enable us to close down Holot and allocate some of the large funds going there to inspectors and removing more people,” said Netanyahu.
Holot, an open facility in the desert that can host 1,200 migrants who are allowed to leave to work during the day, would be closed three months from December 16, according to the decision.
A public security ministry spokesman said an extension to that deadline would be set if necessary.
Ahead of the vote, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Holot had become “a hotel for infiltrators at the tax-payers’ expense that does not encourage their exit” and costs 240 million shekels ($68 million, 58 million euros) a year.
In a Twitter statement, Erdan however stressed the closure of Holot was conditioned on “us seeing that the policy of removing infiltrators to a third country was indeed taking place.”
Neither Erdan nor Netanyahu gave details about the deal and the third country.
Israel tacitly recognises the Sudanese and Eritreans cannot be returned to their dangerous homelands, so it has signed deals with Rwanda and Uganda, which agree to accept departing migrants on condition they consent to the arrangement, according to activists.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-shut-migrant-centre-deport-africans-002604289.html
oh please don’t let that ‘third country’ be US
“a hotel for infiltrators at the tax-payers’ expense that does not encourage their exit” and costs 240 million shekels ($68 million, 58 million euros) a year.
Israel is an infiltrator into our country at our expense which does NOT encourage your exit.
I say this to Israel-“The infiltrators will have the option to be imprisoned or leave the country,”….
Like Mary said, don’t let that third country be the uS.
Does anyone know why they were allowed into Israel in the first place? And are these so-called illegals actually Jews? (Just not Ashkenazi Jews) I say this because aren’t Mizrahi (also called Egyptian) Jews also from Sudan (since Sudan used to be part of Egypt and maybe Eritrea as well)? And if these folks are Jews, then Israel is even more evil than I thought…isn’t it a homeland for Jews? Or just Ashkenzi Jews, aka Khazars?
So sad for the ashke-NAZIS. Uninvited guests to their little zionist party and they want them out. The “invaders” have more right than the khazarians that stole it from the Palestinians to occupy that tract. They’re at least geographically closer and probably share more DNA with Hebrews than khazarians, if you’re following the Biblical history. It’s apparently good for joos to hold a welcome party for invaders as they cross our borders in the US, but a big fat NO NO for them? Hmmmph..hypocrisy is their strong suit, so yeah.
“It’s apparently good for joos to hold a welcome party for invaders as they cross our borders in the US, but a big fat NO NO for them? Hmmmph..hypocrisy is their strong suit, so yeah.”
Exactly what I kept thinking as I read the article. This is so infuriating!
Yes, Katie, infuriating is closest but only scratches the surface! How anyone finds ANYTHING good about this bunch of pos’s is totally beyond me and can only be explained through brainwashing.
Where is Peter Sutherland and why don’t more people know his name?
What’s good for the USA not good for them . Will people ever wake up and see what there doing to USA . All they know how to do is kill and take