South Sudanese migrants given more time to voluntarily leave Israel

Israel’s Population Immigration and Borders Authority announced on Friday morning that it will extend by a few days the time frame in which South Sudanese migrants subject to deportation can voluntarily leave the country. The decision came one day after South Sudanese officials arrived in Israel and requested the extension in a meeting with Interior Minister Eli Yishai.

Migrants from South Sudan who agree to leave Israel on their own accord have been promised financial assistance of 1,000 Euro (approximately US $1,250) from the government and a plane ticket home. Army Radio reported that the extension was given due to the high number of migrants who have signed voluntary departure forms in recent days indicating their willingness to be repatriated to their home country.

More than 100 illegal migrants from South Sudan have been rounded up in immigration control sweeps this week.

Some 200 South Sudanese migrants are scheduled to fly out of Israel on Sunday. Another plane carrying migrants is set to depart in July after the families’ children have finished school.

On June 7, a Jerusalem court approved the deportation of South Sudanese nationals who have entered the country illegally, paving the way for operation “Returning Home.” The Population, Immigration and Borders Authority announced shortly thereafter that South Sudanese would have one week to turn themselves in and leave the country, or be deported by force.

There are roughly 1,500 South Sudanese in Israel, a small percentage of the estimated 60,000-70,000 African migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan proper, who are known to have entered the country illegally.

Yishai, last week, expressed hope that the court would allow the deportation of migrants from Eritrea and Sudan as well. Currently citizens of those two countries enjoy immunity from deportation as the security situation there grants them collective protection. The situation in South Sudan was deemed by the government as safe enough for citizens to return there.

On Thursday, a group of Israel Prize laureates, academics and other public figures called on the nation’s leaders to stop “governmental incitement against foreign asylum seekers.”

The group urged that asylum seekers who cannot be repatriated to their countries of origin be temporarily integrated into the Israeli workforce. The petition also noted the fact that most of the country’s founders were refugees.

Over the past month, tensions have been running particularly high between Israelis and illegal African migrants, resulting in large demonstrations and occasionally degenerating into violence, primarily in the Hatikvah neighborhood of south Tel Aviv.