UN urges Israel to scrap African migrant relocation plan

GENEVA, Switzerland — The United Nations calls on Israel to scrap a new program to force thousands of African migrants out of the country, condemning it as incoherent and unsafe.

The program targets an estimated 38,000 people, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan. Israel has offered them $3,500 and a plane ticket if they leave by March, warning they may face arrest after the deadline.

The plan was widely criticized when first unveiled last year, but the UN’s refugee agency is sounding a fresh alarm after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement last week that the program had begun.

Israel has not clearly said where the migrants will go, but tacitly recognizes it is too dangerous to return the Sudanese and Eritreans home. As a result, according to activists in Israel, it has signed deals with Rwanda and Uganda, which agree to accept departing migrants on condition they consent to the arrangement.

UNHCR said it had spoken to 80 people who were flown with the $3,500 to Rwanda before heading north, travelling to Rome through conflict zones in South Sudan, Sudan and Libya.

“Along the way they suffered abuse, torture and extortion before risking their lives once again by crossing the Mediterranean to Italy,” UNHCR says in a statement, explaining that its staff interviewed the migrants in Rome.

— AFP