https://www.haaretz.com/whdcMobileSite/ ... -1.5973475Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Canada, Germany and Italy are among the Western countries that will take in asylum seekers from Israel after the country signed a deal with the UN refugee agency canceling its mass deportation plan.
Speaking at a news conference, Netanyahu said the plan to deport asylum seekers to "a third country" was scrapped when "it became clear that the third country did not meet the [required] conditions," adding that this country "did not withstand the pressure."
Interior Minister Arye Dery added that following tough negotiations with the UNHCR, Israel had agreed to resettle one asylum seeker in a Western country for every asylum seeker awarded temporary residency status in Israel. In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office gave these numbers as 16,250 each. Currently more than 38,000 asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea live in Israel.
For its part, the German embassy in Israel told Haaretz that Germany had not received any request from the UN refugee agency or from the Israeli government to absorb African asylum seekers deported by Israel. The Italian Foreign ministry, in a statement to the Italian newspaper La Republica, denied any agreement with Israel regarding asylum seekers as well.
Later on Monday, sources in the Prime Minister's Office explained that Netanyahu merely mentioned those countries (Germany, Italy and Canada) as examples. According to the sources, the UN – and not Israel – will conduct negotiations with the Western countries involved in the deal.
Thanks juden.
