- 240 African immigrants has been rounded up by Israel
- 300 immigrants had agreed to be repatriated voluntarily
- Those who agree to leave Israel voluntarily will receive free airline tickets and a grant of 1,000 euros ($1,250)
Israel has rounded up 240 African immigrants as the interior ministry said that another 300 people had agreed to be repatriated voluntarily.
“Our officers today detained 100 illegal immigrants and another 300 submitted requests to leave voluntarily,” a ministry spokesman said.
AFP reports that on the raids saw police round up some 25 immigrants, around a third of them from South Sudan, and the campaign gathered speed on Monday, when 115 people were arrested, many of them in the Red Sea town of Eilat, close to where they crossed into Israel from Egypt.
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Those who agree to leave Israel voluntarily will receive free airline tickets and a grant of 1,000 euros ($1,250), but the offer is “only on the table for one week,” Population and Migration Authority spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told AFP.
“For the time being, I feel good. I’m not sure they can find anything on us,” said 32-year-old Anthony Christiano from South Sudan.
“I don’t blame them (the immigration police) — it’s the state that wants us out,” he told AFP.
Nearby, native-born resident Yusef Khuri sat at a small table gathering signatures to urge the authorities to rid the city of its African immigrants, flanked by posters reading: “Free conquered Eilat.”
“They have wrecked our country and have taken over every aspect of our lives,” he spat. “They are border jumpers, they should be shot.”
Last week, an Israeli court decided that the lives of an estimated 1,500 South Sudanese were no longer at risk in their homeland, clearing the way for their mass expulsion.
The interior minister, who has frequently tried to expel non-Jewish immigrants, sparking accusations of racism, on Tuesday said the raids were “just the beginning.”
“At the moment we are permitted only to deport citizens of South Sudan and the Ivory Coast,” Yishai wrote in the Israel HaYom newspaper.
“The next stage is the removal from Israel of all the infiltrators from Eritrea and Sudan.”
Allowing them to stay would mean “the end of the Zionist dream,” he warned.
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that a Nigerian woman Tobi Cohen has become the first and only woman to serve in the Israel Defense Force (IDF).
The young woman grew up with stories about her father who served in the IDF as a soldier. She is now a Lieutenant in the army.
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In an effort to join the army, Cohen joined a program which sends people to Israel when she was just 16.
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Source: Naija.ng