Israel looking to seal deal with Uganda that will allow it to deport 4,000 African immigrants

ISRAEL is looking to conclude negotiations with Uganda under a groundbreaking agreement that will involve the East African country accepting 4,000 migrants the Jewish state intends to expel under a plan to keep itself pure.

In one of the most controversial anti-immigration purges ever, Israel has asked all Africans living in the country to leave of face imprisonment or deportation. Across Israel, racism is very rife, with members of the public bitterly opposed to African migrants, saying that Israel is a Jewish state meant only for Jews.

About 4,000 migrants have left Israel for Rwanda and Uganda since 2013 under a voluntary programme but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under pressure from his right-wing voter base to expel thousands more. In January this year, Israel started handing out notices to male migrants from Eritrea and Sudan giving them three months to take the voluntary deal with a plane ticket and $3,500 or risk being thrown in jail.

Israel's government said that as from April, it would start forced deportations but human rights groups challenged the move and Israel’s Supreme Court has issued a temporary injunction to give more time for petitioners to argue against the plan.

Government representatives told the court that an envoy was in an African country finalising

a deportation deal after an arrangement with Rwanda to take migrants expelled under the new measures fell through. They did not name the country in court although Israeli lawmakers have previously said the two countries it was planning to deport migrants to were Rwanda and Uganda.

Israeli deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely also identified the countries it was seeking to strike new deportation deals with as Uganda and Rwanda in closed-door comments. After the Rwanda deal fell through, the government struck an agreement with the United Nation’s refugee agency to relocate 16,250 migrants to Western countries but Prime Minister Netanyahu scrapped it after an outcry from right-wing politicians furious that thousands more would be allowed to stay in Israel.

Now, the fate of tens of thousands of migrants who entered Israel illegally through its desert border with Egypt and were granted temporary visas has posed a moral dilemma for a state founded as a national home for Jews and a haven from persecution. Israeli rights groups say the country can absorb the estimated 37,000 migrants still there, or should find them safe destinations such as those agreed under the defunct United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees deal.

Human rights groups have accused Mr Netanyahu, who is under police investigation for corruption, of playing political games to appeal to his right-wing supporters. Also, the United nations and human rights groups are also concerned because many of the Africans who left previously for Rwanda and Uganda voluntarily, did not get the protection they were promised and some ended up back on the migration trail.

Both countries have denied having any deals with Israel to resettle migrants. Uganda, a key Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in East Africa, also denied there were discussions about accepting deportees under the new scheme, adding that it was not aware of any visiting Israeli envoy.