Israel nixes plan to deport African migrants

The Israeli government on Tuesday canceled all pending deportation orders of African migrants, admitting it can’t forcibly expel them. Israel currently houses approximately 35,000 African refugees, the majority of them from Sudan and Eritrea. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month agreed with the United Nations to send half of the migrants to Western nations but retracted the plan after facing backlash. In an earlier move, the government considered forcibly resettling the migrants in Rwanda and Uganda. “It is not possible to implement expulsions to a third country without [migrants’] consent,” the government said in a statement to the Israeli Supreme Court. A statement from Netanyahu’s office said the country will reopen detention facilities for the migrants and added that those who already received deportation notices will continue to renew their visas every 60 days as they did earlier.