’Israel’ Secretly Ships African Asylum Seekers to Uganda

Local Editor

"Israel" is secretly transferring African asylum seekers to Uganda, Haaretz newspaper reported on Wednesday, quoting a senior "Israeli" government official.
The paper said that, over the past month, dozens of people agreed to leave for Uganda and some had already departed.

Last June, a government official told the "Israeli" Supreme Court agreement had been reached with an unnamed country prepared to take in Africans seeking asylum in "Israel".

Interior Minister Gideon Saar said last month 1,500 Africans who entered "Israel" illegally were due to leave by the end of February. That compared with 765 in January, 325 in December 2013 and 63 in November.

"Israeli" figures say there are some 52,000 Africans in the country illegally, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea. They managed to enter the Zionist entity before the completion late last year of a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt brought the flow to a virtual halt.

The government said most are economic migrants rather than genuine refugees, but media reports say that few asylum requests have been examined and hardly any approved.

In 2012, rising tensions over the growing number of illegal migrants exploded into violence when a racist protest in south Tel Aviv turned ugly. Demonstrators smashed African shops and property, chanting "Blacks out!"

The right-wing fundamentalist government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up moves to expel them, saying they pose a threat to the Zionist entity "Jewish character".

The government has opened a sprawling detention facility in al-Naqab desert to house both new entrants and immigrants already in the country deemed to have disturbed public order.

The UNHCR has condemned "Israel" for ignoring the reasons asylum seekers have fled their countries of origin and for failing to provide "those with protection needs" with "access to refugee status determination."

Thousands of asylum seekers have demonstrated recently outside the Knesset and migrant detention centers to protest immigration policy.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team