Israel and UN Refugee Agency reach agreement on African asylum seekers News
Israel and UN Refugee Agency reach agreement on African asylum seekers

The Israeli government reached a common understanding [press release] Monday with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to remove half of the African asylum seekers to Western countries.

The UNHCR will facilitate the departure of 16,250 migrants from Israel to various Western countries, while Israel will relocate populations in a balanced manner with weight given to occupational guidance, vocational training and job matching.

In January the UNHCR expressed concern [press release] over Israel’s controversial law to forcibly relocate and indefinitely detain asylum seekers from Eritrea and Sudan. Currently, there are about 27,000 asylum seekers from Eritrea and 7,700 from Sudan.