Yesh Atid: Netanyahu’s migrants zig zag led to deportations freeze

Yesh Atid’s Knesset faction chief MK Ofer Shelach slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the state told the High Court of Justice on Tuesday it would no longer pursue the policy of deporting African asylum seekers.

Netanyahu announced on April 2 that he had struck a deal with the UN refugee agency to deport half the 38,000 migrants living in Israel to willing western nations and would grant permanent residency to the remainder. Within hours, amid angry denunciations from right-wing politicians and advocacy groups, Netanyahu announced he was rescinding the agreement and would continue to seek legal ways to expel the asylum seekers.

“Just as I warned,” Shelach says Tuesday, “the residents of south Tel Aviv [where many of the migrants live] are the ones who will pay the prize of Netanyahu’s zig zag…Instead of a reasonable agreement that would have allowed the deportation of tens of thousands and a fair solution for those who remain, now no one will be deported and no problem will be solved.”