The United Nations Refugee agency on Tuesday asked Israel to stop sending thousands of migrants back to Africa forcibly, suggesting some could be resettled in Europe or other countries.
“We are again appealing to Israel to halt its policy of relocating Eritreans and Sudanese to sub-Saharan Africa,” William Spindler of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told a Geneva briefing.
This comes after Israel recently announced that it will pay thousands of African migrants who are in the country illegally to leave or face imprisonment.
Majority of the migrants come from Eritrea and Sudan and many say they fled war and persecution as well as economic hardship. Israel treats them mostly as economic migrants.
The plan offers African migrants a $3,500 payment from the Israeli government and a free air ticket to return home or go to “third countries”, which rights groups identified as Rwanda and Uganda, Reuters reports.
“Official statements that the plans may eventually target families and those with pending asylum claims, or that asylum seekers might be taken to the airport in handcuffs, are particularly alarming,” he said.
Some 27,000 Eritreans and 7,700 Sudanese live in Israel, but authorities there have only granted refugee status to 11 since 2009, Spindler said.
Rwanda and Uganda both have denied strucking any deal to take in African migrants from Israel under a scheme condemned by rights groups.
