Date: Monday, 16 April 2018
High Court panel says 'there was no longer a reason to hold them' in the absence of an agreement with a 'third country'
Asylum seekers pose for a photograph at Saharonim detention facility in the Negev desert, Israel, March 8, 2018. Credit:Maya Ben Nisan"The dangerous plan to deport refugees to Uganda and Rwanda is disintegrating and the refugees that were unjustly jailed will be released," a statement of human rights groups said.
"The government continues to make cynical use of asylum seekers and promotes anti-democratic laws while utterly shirking its obligation to rehabilitate neighborhoods in south Tel Aviv.” The Human rights groups including Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, Assaf – Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, Physicians for Human Rights, Kav Laoved, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the African Refugees Development Center) said in response to Mendelblit’s answer to the court.
The movement Stop the Deportation said: “Another day of shame for the government of Israel instead of taking responsibility. Today it was made undeniably clear that forced deportation is no longer on the agenda. Third world countries are also no longer prepared to be partners in such an inhumane move.”
There are approximately 39,000 Eritrean and Sudanese citizens now in Israel. According to Population and Immigration Authority figures, over the past three and a half years, some 1,750 people have left Israel for Uganda. In 2015, 485 asylum seekers left, in 2016, 506 people left and in 2017, the figure was 630. So far this year, 128 people have left.
