Israel, UN reach landmark deal over African asylum seekers

JERUSALEM -- Israel said on Monday that it reached a landmark agreement with the UN Refugee Agency to cancel the deportation of African asylum seekers from Israel.

Under the five-year agreement, the UN Refugee Agency would help relocate at least 16,250 asylum seekers, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, to "Western countries," Israeli Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

The rest will receive legal status in Israel and the government will provide vocational training and assistance in finding a job, it added.

The new understanding cancels a government plan to expel tens of thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers to Uganda and Rwanda or to detain those who refuse an indefinite time in prison.

"These understandings will enable the exit of a greater number of migrants than in the previous plan, all under the auspices of the UN and the international community," the statement read.

The agreement was achieved in the wake of a ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court on March 15, which put a temporary freeze on the deportation plan.

Official figures released by the Interior Ministry show Israel has some 42,000 African migrants, many of whom live in the impoverished neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv.

Israeli authorities see them as a threat to Israel's Jewish identity and employed a slew of measures against them.