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. 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. “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. 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. 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. 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.
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.