State expected to tell High Court: Deportation deal with Uganda still on

The state is reportedly expected to tell the High Court of Justice on Tuesday that its controversial deal to deport African asylum seekers to Uganda has not been nixed, despite Kampala officials denying that such an agreement exists.

According to Hadashot news, officials from the Prime Minister’s Office visiting Uganda have confirmed the arrangement with government officials there.

They said Ugandan officials have backed away from the deal publicly, but said it had not been officially cancelled.

The report said that Israel was also mulling sending Eritrean asylum seekers back to their home country, despite its poor human rights record, in keeping with a recent ruling from a Swiss Court that determined that it was safe for several thousand Eritreans living in the country to return home.

Last week, Uganda’s foreign minister, Henry Okello Oryem, said that if any migrants deported from Israel arrive in the East African nation “we will insist that the airlines return them to the country where they came from.”

“We do not have a contract, any understanding, formal or informal, with Israel for them to dump their refugees here,” he added.