African refugees should leave Israel or face imprisonment, stern warning by Israel to refugees

Tel Aviv: Leave the country by 1st April or face imprisonment, is the stern warning issued by Israel to the African refugees. There are about 40,000 African refugees in Israel and Israel had taken the decision to expel them out of the country in the last year itself. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that these refugees are nothing but intruders.

Last year the Israeli government had prepared a proposal to expel the African refugees from the country. There are three stages in this proposal. They are, stopping the refugees at the border, giving them financial assistance and asking them to leave, and expulsion. The government has claimed that it had succeeded in getting 20,000 refugees to leave with the first two proposals. At the same time, the refugees who do not accept these two proposals, will be declared intruders and expelled, Prime Minister Netanyahu had warned.

The agency, ‘Population, Immigration and Border Authority’ has issued notices to the African refugees in accordance to the prime ministers warning. The notice appeals for leaving Israel before 1st of April 2018. It clarifies that the Israeli government has made arrangements for sending them to their homeland or to other safe countries. Accordingly, the refugees leaving the country will be awarded $ 3500 along with the flight ticket and legal travel documents.

The notice warns that if the African refugees do not follow these orders, they will be liable to be captured and imprisoned for an indefinite period of time. At the same time, they have been warned that the option of expelling them with lesser money also is open with the government. Israel is said to have signed a secret pact with the African countries of Rwanda and Uganda. According to that, the refugees sent there will be provided work permit and a place to live in these countries.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken an aggressive stand on the refugee issue and clarified that the safety of the Israeli people is of prime importance. According to the information provided by the Israeli Security Agencies, there is a large number of African refugees in Tel Aviv city and in some parts it has been observed that these refugees are responsible for about 40% of the crimes. Religious and voluntary groups in Israel and also the United States and the United Nations has requested Israel to stop the action for expulsion of the refugees.

The refugees being expelled by Israel have entered illegally, in the past decade, via Egypt. Although, they were offered refuge initially, the Netanyahu government has taken an aggressive stand. Approximately 70,000 refugees had entered Israel in the past decade. Most of these refugees are originally from Sudan and Eritrea, it is said.