Israel is planning to deport 500 Ethiopians, possibly as
early as January 2014. Ethiopians were also removed from Saudi Arabia.
Some 60,000 migrants from different African countries - particularly
Eritrea and Sudan have entered Israel in recent years through the Sinai Peninsula.
This has led to fears that the Jewish character of the country of 7.8
million is being threatened, as was stated by Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in a speech in May 2012.
The country is planning to remove the undocumented migrants, which it calls
'infiltrators', with incentives designed to encourage voluntary
departures. These include 3,500 dollars in compensation for each
migrant, in addition to free plane tickets and health care.
For Ethiopians, deportation is to happen within a short period of
time, Fortune has discovered from the Ethiopian Embassy in Tel Aviv,
Israel. The Ethiopians in Israel are well-protected
and safe, unlike those from Saudi Arabia.More than 100,000
Ethiopians have, thus far, returned from Saudi Arabia, as of Friday,
December 6, 2013.Unlike those who will be leaving Israel shortly, a large portion of
those from the oil-rich kingdom returned to the country without their
personal belongings; some of them even barefoot.
The Israeli embassy in Addis Ababa, on the other hand, requested full
cooperation from the Ethiopian government on ways of returning the
migrants, since they entered into the country using illegal means.
Currently, there are more than 130,000 people of Ethiopian origin in
Israel, the majority of whom have Israeli citizenship given that they
are Beta Israel.
No comments:
Post a Comment