Rwanda to absorb thousands of Israel’s asylum seekers

World Today

Rwanda’s government has agreed to absorb tens of thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers currently in Israel in return for trade deals valued at millions of dollars. Human rights advocates and asylum seekers view the deal as an Israeli government attempt to sidestep responsibility and offload refugees onto third-party countries. CCTV’s Stephanie Freid filed this report from Tel Aviv.

  • Israel’s asylum seekers have been given thirty days and two options: Deportation to Rwanda or incarceration in a southern Israel detention facility.
  • Thousands of Eritreans and Sudanese are already in desert detention centers, forcibly interned for more than a year as a means of pressuring them into voluntarily leaving Israel.
  • Israel’s government calls them illegal, job-seeking infiltrators. The agreement with Rwanda, said government officials, will encourage Africans to leave Israel in a “safe and dignified manner”.