“I’ve decided to suspend implementation of this accord and to rethink the terms of the accord,” Benjamin Netanyahu backtracked on his Facebook page.
It had previously been agreed to send the 16 000 African asylum seekers to western countries including Canada, Italy and Germany. Both Germany and Italy however say they were unaware of any such resettlement deal.
The Federal Interior Ministry said that they had no knowledge of settling African refugees from Israel in Germany. The Italian Foreign Ministry said: “There is no agreement with Italy.”
Speaking at press conference with Netanyahu earlier on Monday, Israel’s interior minister, Arye Dery, confirmed that the UN offered to resettle one asylum seeker in a western country for every asylum seeker to whom Israel provided temporary residency status.
Israelis are unhappy about the 40 000 African migrants – mainly from Eritrea and Sudan – residing in their country because they are black, and the Jewish state has been accused of racism.
But public pressure in Israel and from the international community brought on the collapse of the agreement with Rwanda, the third country, after it was revealed and protests broke out.
Rwanda, with which Israel had negotiated a corresponding agreement, had already received thousands of migrants. “We’ve already deported 20 000 people and our mission is to get the rest out,” Netanyahu announced in January. Originally, the migrants were to receive time until the end of March to leave Israel. After that deadline, they would have been arrested according to government plans.
Israel was criticised for the deportation plan under which many Africans would be sent to third countries in Africa in exchange for cash payments.