More than 200 African migrants in jail in Israel were released Sunday by order of the Supreme Court, after a deal to deport them to another African country remained unsigned.

In total, 207 African migrants and asylum seekers were released over several hours from the Saharonim Prison in southern Israel, where they had been held since refusing to leave Israel voluntarily.

The Supreme Court last week ordered them to be released on Sunday — the day that the government was to present its final plan for sending them to another country. The court also ordered the government’s deportation plan suspended for an additional two weeks, Haaretz reported.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

The state informed the High Court of Justice that negotiations with a third country, widely reported to be Uganda, to accept the deported migrants from Israel were still ongoing.

Israel has been holding talks with Uganda and has said it is “highly probable” a deal would be clinched.

A senior Ugandan minister acknowledged for the first time on Friday that his country was “positively considering” a request by Israel to accept 500 African asylum seekers. In a statement released ahead of a press conference in Kampala, State Minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Musa Ecweru confirmed his country was in talks with Jerusalem to accept several hundred refugees deported from Israel.

Israel’s Channel 10 news reported Friday that an Israeli emissary dispatched to the country has thus far failed to persuade the Ugandan authorities to sign off on a previous verbal agreement to take in a large number of migrant deportees.

Until Friday, Uganda consistently denied that a deportation deal with Israel exists, despite reports that it was accepting migrants deported from Israel.

Earlier this month, 58 migrants were freed from Saharonim after a similar reported deal with Rwanda fell through. Rwanda, another “third-party country” that had reportedly agreed to accept asylum seekers from Israel, has also denied the existence of any deal and said it will not absorb any migrants expelled from Israel.

The developments came earlier this month, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, and hours later canceled, a new agreement with the UN’s refugee agency that would have seen some 16,000 African migrants resettled in Western nations and a similar number given temporary status in Israel. The prime minister froze the deal shortly after announcing it, following an outcry from right-wing politicians and advocacy groups.

The presence of the primarily Sudanese and Eritrean migrants in Israel has become a key political issue. Israel’s earlier deportation policy to the African countries, which offered each migrant $3,500 and a plane ticket, had been condemned by Israeli activists and the United Nations as chaotic, poorly executed, and unsafe.

About 1,700 asylum seekers were “willingly deported” to Uganda in the past three years, but the government wants future deportations to take place much faster, at the rate of around 600 per month, rather than 600 per year. For this to happen, it needs a country that will accept asylum seekers who were forcibly deported, a stance that is unpopular in the international community.

Asylum seekers who were “willingly deported” to Uganda and Rwanda in the past have told The Times of Israel they faced serious danger and even imprisonment after arriving in Africa without proper documents, and were not allowed to stay in Rwanda, but forced to cross the border illegally to other countries.

A news report on Friday said visas issued by Israel, purportedly on behalf of Uganda, to African asylum seekers as they are about to leave the country are “totally fake.”

The Supreme Court froze the deportations in mid-March in response to a petition.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.</s>Israel on Sunday began freeing 207 African migrants from prison following a supreme court ruling after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu controversially reversed a deal with the UN refugee agency on the detainees’ fate.

By early evening, a spokeswoman for the immigration authority told AFP, about half had been released and the Israel Prisons Service said the operation should be completed by the end of the day.

There are about 42,000 African migrants in Israel. Authorities had transferred 207 from a nearby open detention facility in February after they refused to leave the country.

The Israeli government says the migrants in Israel are job seekers and that it has every right to protect its borders. The migrants and rights groups say they are seeking asylum and are fleeing war and persecution.

About 4,000 migrants have left Israel for Rwanda and Uganda since 2013 under a voluntary programme, but Netanyahu has come under pressure from his right-wing voter base to expel thousands more.

Israel’s supreme court on 10 April gave the government until Sunday to finalise a deal it said it was working on to deport some of the migrants to another country.

Without the deal, the court said authorities must release those held at Saharonim Prison.

“In light of the fact that the negotiations between Israel and a third country are still ongoing and due to a supreme court ruling, the migrants held in Saharonim Prison will be freed today,” the immigration authority said in a statement earlier.

Uganda said on 13 April it was “positively considering” the proposal from Israel to accept 500 of the mostly Eritrean and Sudanese migrants.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu cancelled an agreement with the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, aimed at avoiding forced deportations of thousands of migrants.

The reversal, just hours after Netanyahu announced the deal himself in a televised address, came after pressure from his right-wing base.

That left the government with its initial plan, announced in January, under which migrants who entered Israel illegally would face a choice between leaving voluntarily or facing indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.

As the migrants could face danger or imprisonment if returned to their homelands, Israel had offered to relocate them to an unidentified African country – either Rwanda or Uganda, according to deportees and aid workers.

Rwanda has since said it could not be part of the arrangement.

The UN refugee agency has strongly criticised the deportation plan and urged Israel to return to the deal, which would have allowed thousands of migrants to remain in the country in return for an equal number being relocated to Western nations.

Some Israelis, including Holocaust survivors who say the country has a special duty to protect migrants, have also opposed the deportation plan.

Of the 42,000 African migrants in Israel, half are children, women or men with families who are not facing immediate deportation, according to interior ministry figures.

Migrants began entering Israel through what was then a porous Egyptian border in 2007. The border has since been strengthened, all but ending illegal crossings.</s>Israel on Sunday began freeing 207 African migrants from prison following a supreme court ruling after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu controversially reversed a deal with the U.N. refugee agency on the detainees' fate.

By early evening, a spokeswoman for the immigration authority told AFP, about half had been released and the Israel Prisons Service said the operation should be completed by the end of the day.

There are around 42,000 African migrants in Israel. Authorities transferred 207 of them from a nearby open detention facility in February after they refused to leave the country.

Israel's supreme court on April 10 gave the government until Sunday to finalize a deal it said it was working on to deport some of the migrants to another country.

Without a deal, the court said authorities must release those held at Saharonim prison.

"In light of the fact that the negotiations between Israel and a third country are still ongoing and due to a supreme court ruling, the migrants held in Saharonim prison will be freed today," the immigration authority said in a statement earlier.

Uganda said on Friday it was "positively considering" a proposal from Israel to accept 500 of the mostly Eritrean and Sudanese migrants.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu canceled an agreement with the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, aimed at avoiding forced deportations of thousands of migrants.

The reversal, just hours after he announced the deal himself in a televised address, followed pressure from his right-wing base.

That left the government with its initial plan, announced in January, under which migrants who entered Israel illegally would face a choice between leaving voluntarily or facing indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.

As the migrants could face danger or imprisonment if returned to their homelands, Israel had offered to relocate them to an unnamed African country -- either Rwanda or Uganda, according to deportees and aid workers.

Rwanda has since said it could not be part of the arrangement.

The U.N. refugee agency has strongly criticized the deportation plan and urged Israel to return to the deal, which would have allowed thousands of migrants to remain in the country in return for an equal number being relocated to Western nations.

Some Israelis, including Holocaust survivors who say the country has a special duty to protect migrants, have also opposed the deportation plan.

Of the 42,000 African migrants in Israel, half are children, women or men with families who are not facing immediate deportation, according to interior ministry figures.

Migrants began entering Israel through what was then a porous Egyptian border in 2007. The border has since been strengthened, all but ending illegal crossings.</s>TEL AVIV: Israel will release 207 African migrants from prison following a supreme court ruling after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu controversially reversed a deal with the UN refugee agency on the detainees’ fate.

 There are around 42,000 African migrants in Israel. Authorities transferred 207 of them from a nearby open detention facility in February after they refused to leave the country. Israel’s supreme court on April 10 gave the government until Sunday to finalise a deal it said it was working on to deport some of the migrants to another country.

 Without a deal, the court said authorities must release those held at Saharonim prison.

 “In light of the fact that the negotiations between Israel and a third country are still ongoing and due to a supreme court ruling, the migrants held in Saharonim prison will be freed today,” the immigration service said in a statement.

 Uganda said on Friday it was “positively considering” a proposal from Israel to accept 500 of the mostly Eritrean and Sudanese migrants. Earlier this month, Netanyahu cancelled an agreement with the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, aimed at avoiding forced deportations of thousands of migrants. The reversal, just hours after he announced the deal himself in a televised address, followed pressure from his right-wing base.

 That left the government with its initial plan, announced in January, under which migrants who entered Israel illegally would face a choice between leaving voluntarily or facing indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.

 As the migrants could face danger or imprisonment, Israel had offered to relocate them to an unnamed African country. — AFP</s>Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israel on Sunday freed 207 African migrants from prison following a supreme court ruling after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu controversially reversed a deal with the UN refugee agency on the detainees’ fate.

After an operation lasting several hours a spokeswoman for the immigration authority told AFP late on Sunday that all detainees had been released.

There are around 42,000 African migrants in Israel. Authorities transferred 207 of them from a nearby open detention facility in February after they refused to leave the country.

Israel’s supreme court on April 10 gave the government until Sunday to finalise a deal it said it was working on to deport some of the migrants to another country.

Without a deal, the court said authorities must release those held at Saharonim prison.

“In light of the fact that the negotiations between Israel and a third country are still ongoing and due to a supreme court ruling, the migrants held in Saharonim prison will be freed today,” the immigration authority said in a statement earlier Sunday.

Uganda said on Friday it was “positively considering” a proposal from Israel to accept 500 of the mostly Eritrean and Sudanese migrants.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu cancelled an agreement with the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, aimed at avoiding forced deportations of thousands of migrants.

The reversal, just hours after he announced the deal himself in a televised address, followed pressure from his right-wing base.

That left the government with its initial plan, announced in January, under which migrants who entered Israel illegally would face a choice between leaving voluntarily or facing indefinite imprisonment with eventual forced expulsion.

As the migrants could face danger or imprisonment if returned to their homelands, Israel had offered to relocate them to an unnamed African country — either Rwanda or Uganda, according to deportees and aid workers.

Rwanda has since said it could not be part of the arrangement.

The UN refugee agency has strongly criticised the deportation plan and urged Israel to return to the deal, which would have allowed thousands of migrants to remain in the country in return for an equal number being relocated to Western nations.

Some Israelis, including Holocaust survivors who say the country has a special duty to protect migrants, have also opposed the deportation plan.

Of the 42,000 African migrants in Israel, half are children, women or men with families who are not facing immediate deportation, according to interior ministry figures.

Migrants began entering Israel through what was then a porous Egyptian border in 2007. The border has since been strengthened, all but ending illegal crossings.

The post Israel frees 207 African migrants from prison ahead of Uganda deal appeared first on The Independent Uganda:.

Do you have something awesome to share with the world? Click here to share

Do you ever have any question about anything you wish to ask and get answer? Click here to ask

Also, Like us on facebook

This post was syndicated from The Independent Uganda:. Click here to read the full text on the original website.</s>JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 200 African migrants in jail in Israel were released by order of the Supreme Court after a deal to deport them to another African country remained unsigned.

Some 207 African migrants and asylum seekers were released over several hours on Sunday from the Saharonim Prison in southern Israel, where they have been held after refusing to leave Israel voluntarily.

The Supreme Court last week ordered them to be released on Sunday – the day that the government was to present its final plan for sending them to another country, in the absence of such a plan, which would require agreement from a third country to take them in. The court also ordered the government’s deportation plan suspended for an additional two weeks, Haaretz reported.

On Thursday Uganda said it was considering a request from Israel to take in 500 African migrants that Israel would deport — the first time an African country confirmed that it was going along with the Israeli government’s controversial deportation plan.

Uganda was one of two countries that had surfaced in reports as a possible destination for some 38,000 African asylum seekers in Israel to be deported under a plan announced in January by the Israeli government. Under the plan, migrants who had chosen to leave by March 31 would receive a payment of $3,500 as well as free airfare and other incentives.

The deportations would be undertaken without the typical protections afforded asylum seekers, which can take years to process. The migrants, their advocates and refugee groups said that hasty, unregulated deportations would place the migrants in danger.

Netanyahu’s plan prompted an outcry from migrant advocates in Israel and a broad swath of the U.S. Jewish organizational community, and at the beginning of the month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would instead seek the orderly departure of half the migrants under U.N. procedures. That, in turn, prompted an outcry from Israeli right-wingers, which led Netanyahu to reverse himself and revert to his plan of deporting the migrants to African countries.

Announcing the reversal, Netanyahu confirmed for the first time reports that one of the destinations Netanyahu had hoped for was Rwanda, but that country had resisted the Israeli government’s overtures.</s>FILE PHOTO: African migrants wait in line for the opening of the Population and Immigration Authority office in Bnei Brak Thomson Reuters JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will release about 200 jailed African migrants in the absence of a final deal to deport them and thousands more Eritrean and Sudanese men who entered the country illegally, the Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

The government has been trying to finalize an agreement with Uganda to take in the migrants, who came into Israel on foot through the Egyptian border over the past decade.

Most of the 200 men set for release were sent to a desert prison in recent months to await deportation to Uganda.

But with negotiations continuing over a deal with Uganda, Israel's Interior Ministry -- which has faced court challenges by rights groups over the detentions -- issued a statement on Sunday saying it would begin releasing the migrants.

The Israeli government says the 37,000 migrants in Israel are job seekers and that it has every right to protect its borders. The migrants and rights groups say they are seeking asylum and are fleeing war and persecution.

About 4,000 migrants have left Israel for Rwanda and Uganda since 2013 under a voluntary program, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under pressure from his right-wing voter base to expel thousands more.

On Friday Uganda acknowledged for the first time that it was in talks to take in some 500 migrants, though it said it would only accept people who left voluntarily and not by forced deportation.

Israel started handing out notices to male migrants from Eritrea and Sudan in January, giving them three months to take the voluntary deal with a plane ticket and $3,500 or risk being thrown in jail until they are deported.

Israel's Supreme Court, however, has issued temporary injunctions to give more time for petitioners to argue against the plan.

On Tuesday government representatives told the court that an envoy was in an African country finalizing a deportation deal after an arrangement with Rwanda fell through.

Official documents submitted to the court said authorities have identified close to 8,000 Eritrean and Sudanese migrants it would potentially deport under compulsory expulsion.</s>Israel on Sunday plans to release 207 African migrants seeking asylum, while attempting to finalise a deportation plan.

The Population Immigration and Border Authority in a statement said that the Eritrean and Sudanese detainees will be released throughout the day from Saharonim Prison in Israel’s Negev region.

Israel said it is “highly probable” a deal can be reached with Uganda to take in the migrants.

On Friday, the High Court of Justice instructed Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit it had until midday Sunday to present a deportation plan to safely resettle the migrants in a third country or set them free from detention.

Also Friday, Musa Ecweru, Uganda’s minister for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees, acknowledged that his country was “positively considering” a request by Israel to accept 500 African asylum seekers. Previously, Uganda has denied that a deportation deal with Israel exists.

But he told Haaretz that his country would only accept refugees who wanted to go to Uganda and not by forced deportation.

In the past three years, about 1,700 asylum seekers were “willingly deported” to Uganda.

Approximately 39,000 Eritrean and Sudanese citizens now live in Israel.

Earlier this month, 58 migrants were freed from the prison after a deal with Rwanda fell through.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced earlier this month a new agreement with the U.N.’s refugee agency that would have16,000 African migrants resettled in Western nations and a similar number given temporary status in Israel. But the prime minister cancelled the deal shortly after criticism from right-wing politicians and advocacy groups.

Israel’s earlier offered each migrant $3,500 and a plane ticket, which has drew outrage from Israeli activists and the United Nations for the treatment of people fleeing war and persecution.</s>The state reported to the High Court of Justice on Monday that negotiations to deport African migrants to another country, widely acknowledged as Uganda, are stuck.



While trying to emphasize the positive - that negotiations were ongoing and intensive - the state admitted that Israel's special envoy had returned to Israel Sunday night with no deal.





The absence of a deal was also the reason that the state had to release 205 migrants on Sunday from the Saharonim detention center in the South.Even last week, despite promises to announce a deal by last Tuesday afternoon with a third country for deporting Israel’s African migrants, the state continued to waffle before the High Court about whether it had closed such a deal.Asked several times point blank by the justices whether there was deal or not, the state dodged dizzyingly left and right with vague phrases until it finally said it would give another update within 48 hours.Last Tuesday morning, the state filed a legal brief to update the High Court, following April's chaotic series of contradictory government policy announcements, in which it said that a deal would likely be signed within hours.It also offered that 1,749 migrants have been deported to the third country since 2015.The state did not identify the voluntary or non-voluntary circumstances to the country, but revealed more statistics about the deportations than have been previously revealed.According to the state, 485 migrants were deported to third countries in 2015, 506 in 2016, 630 in 2017 and 128 to date in 2018.All of this is despite public statements by Uganda that it is not accepting migrants from Israel - which seemed to be confirmed Monday by the negotiations being stuck.Last week, the justices confronted the state with Uganda’s denials of a deal and demanded a straight answer when the state said that there was a deal already two months ago, then inexplicably said it was still checking aspects of updates to the deal.Finally, when the court asked whether the third country would receive migrants on an airplane if it landed right now, the state asked for 48 hours to make additional clarifications.The state also held a closed session without the migrants’ lawyers present in which it answered additional questions of the court regarding the developments with the third country.Separately, the migrants’ lawyers also committed to updating their petitions in light of the changed government policies.At the start of April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the state was halting its policy of deporting migrants to Rwanda or detaining those that refused deportation, in favor of a deal with the UN to facilitate deportation of around 16,000 migrants to Western countries, with another 20,000 plus migrants getting to stay in Israel.However, only hours later Netanyahu suspended the UN deal and by the next day, he had reneged on the deal, with the state telling the court it was going to try to replace Rwanda with a different third country.Last week's brief reiterated that the government's envoy to the third country has affirmed that the treatment of African migrants being deported there meets the High Court's required standard. Human rights groups have disputed such assurances in the past as flying in the face of voluminous anecdotes and information they have received from deported migrants.</s>On Sunday Israel announced its plans to release 207 African migrants seeking asylum, with an apparent deportation plan. The Population Immigration and Border Authority in a statement revealed that the detainees made up of Eritrean nationals and Sudanese nationals will be released throughout the day from Saharonim Prison in Israel’s Negev region. Israel has stated […]

The post Israel Releasing 207 African Asylum Seekers From Detention appeared first on The Herald Nigeria Newspaper.

Do you have something awesome to share with the world? Click here to share

Do you ever have any question about anything you wish to ask and get answer? Click here to ask

Also, Like us on facebook

This post was syndicated from The Herald Nigeria Newspaper. Click here to read the full text on the original website.
Israeli authorities release 207 African migrants from Saharonim Prison after a Supreme Court ruling ordering their release amid deportation negotiations. The migrants had refused to leave the country voluntarily.