The planned deportation of thousands of asylum-seekers from Africa is nearing, and public debate in Israel is heating up over the question of how the Jewish state, a state of refugees, can send them to an uncertain fate. Since the deportation law passed in the Knesset in December 2017, Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri, who was one of the shapers of the decision to deport the African immigrants along with Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan, has claimed that a third country has been found to host and care for the asylum-seekers.
According to data by the Population and Immigration Authority, at the time the law passed, 35,000 Eritrean and Sudanese citizens were living in Israel, along with 5,000 children of asylum-seekers who were born in the country.