(UPI) — The Israeli government plans to notify thousands of African migrants in the country that they must leave within three months or face imprisonment.
Migrants who do not have a refugee application pending will be given a notice — instructing them to leave the country or face an indefinite amount of time in prison — the next time they are obliged to appear at an interior ministry office to renew their residency permits.
“Two options only: voluntary deportation or sitting in prison,” Israel’s interior minister, Arye Deri, and the public security minister, Gilad Erdan said.
Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority told the BBC there are 38,000 migrants who entered the country illegally including 1,420 being held in detention facilities.
The migrants will be given up to $3,500 if they leave Israel within the next 90 days and the country will begin jailing any who remain in April. Children, elderly people, and victims of slavery and human trafficking are exempt from the order.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi criticized the plan.
“The Israeli government’s decision to expel 40,000 African asylum seekers is of great concern,” he said. “Israel has a painful history of migration and exile. New generations must not forget that refugees do not flee out of choice but because they don’t have any other choice.”
Most of the migrants entered Israel by crossing through Egypt from Eritrea and Sudan seeking asylum…..more here