Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (L), when she met Kenya’s Deputy
President William Ruto in Nairobi. Ms Shaked is among many high ranking
Israeli officials to have visited the region in the past one month -
visits that observers say have everything to do with deportation of
African migrants. PHOTO | DPPS
Israel has abandoned a plan to forcibly deport African migrants,
after failing to immediately find a willing country to take them in.
In
a Supreme Court filing on Tuesday, Tel Aviv said it had dropped its
months-long plans to expel thousands of mostly Eritrean and Sudanese
migrants who cross into the country through Egypt’s Sinai desert.
This
move is said to have been taken after Uganda, which had indicated a
willingness to take in 500 of them, “took too long” in acceding to Tel
Aviv’s request.
“At this stage, the possibility of
carrying out an unwilling deportation to a third country is not on the
agenda,” the government wrote in a response to the Supreme Court, which
has been hearing the case.
Shuttle diplomacy
Israel
said that it would stop holding pre-deportation hearings for the asylum
seekers, effectively nullifying any previous decisions on the matter.
But, in what seems to be a flurry of shuttle diplomacy, top
Israeli government officials have recently visited East Africa, with
President Reuven Rivlin set to arrive in Ethiopia on Labour Day, giving
credence to speculation that Tel Aviv is looking for new homes for the
African migrants.
Mr Rivlin is expected to meet with
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and address a business conference, which will
be attended by leading Ethiopian and Israeli executives.
Mr
Rivlin will be the third high-ranking official from Tel Aviv to visit
the region in a month, in the footsteps of Justice Minister Ayelet
Shaked and Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
This
week, Ms Shaked was in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya, with speculation
high that Israel is making overtures to the countries to get fresh
commitments, possibly on a voluntary immigration policy. Mr Lieberman
visited Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia at the end of March.
The EastAfrican understands that Zambia and two other African countries are on Israel’s radar in its new plan for voluntary deportations.
Of
interest is the justice minister’s agenda in the region, outside the
trade and investment talks she held with the three countries’ leaders.
She
held meetings with Tanzania’s Minister for Justice and Constitutional
Affairs Palamagamba Kabudi while in Ethiopia she met with senior
government officials. In Kenya, she met with Deputy President William
Ruto.
In Tanzania, she led a delegation of 50 business
people and diplomats with the discussions revolving around technological
co-operation for development of agriculture and manufacturing
industries.
While in Kenya, she announced that the two countries will resume direct flights next year.
The
direct flights were initially set to begin in August 2016, but were
delayed because Israeli airline Arkia lacked a plane to deploy on the
route it had stopped plying in 2003, according to the Israeli embassy.
Its destinations in Africa are Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.
Israeli’s request
Two
weeks ago, Uganda confirmed that it was considering Israeli’s request
to take in African migrants, confirming that it had received Israel’s
official request.
This was the first time Kampala acknowledged it was in talks on such a deal with Israel after constantly denying it.
More
than 4,000 migrants have left Israel for Rwanda and Uganda since 2013
under a voluntary programme but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
administration has come in for heavy criticism over his plan to expel
more than 32,000 immigrants from his country.
Uganda’s
Minister of State for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Musa
Ecweru said that Kampala was “positively considering” the request from
Israel to take in 500 migrants from Eritrea and Sudan.
“The
state of Israel working with other refugees’ managing organisations has
requested Uganda to allow about 500 Eritreans and Sudanese to relocate
to Uganda. The government and ministry are positively considering the
request,” Mr Ecweru said.
Opposition
Prime
Minister Netanyahu, facing opposition from NGOs, has backed down on
forcible eviction and said that Israel will instead reopen the detention
facilities it established for asylum seekers.
The
migrants will now be allowed to renew their residency permits every 60
days, as they were before the beginning of the deportation push.
“Israel
will continue to act on the issue of the infiltrators, including
attempts to encourage them to leave on their own accord or relocating
them involuntarily, in accordance with the law.
“Israel’s
immigration officials will continue to refer infiltrators to the
‘voluntary departure’ office, allowing them to relocate to a third
country, but without conditioning the renewal of their legal status on
their willingness to leave to a third country,” the government said in
in its filing with the Supreme Court earlier this week.
Despite
this apparent retreat, Israel’s immigration authorities are still bent
on deporting the migrants voluntarily, a plan rights group Amnesty
International has criticised.
Now all eyes are on
Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia, after Tuesday’s decision to shelve
the forced deportations and a change of tack by the Netanyahu
administration.
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