Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that, he wants the immediate deportation of Eritreans involved in violent clashes in Tel Aviv.
Tel Aviv announced that the government plans to expel all African immigrants from the country.
The Prime Minister made this comment a day after several people were injured in a bloody clash between Eritrea’s rival factions in southern Tel Aviv.
In a special ministerial meeting called yesterday following the violence, Netanyahu said “We want tough measures against the perpetrators of the violence, we want to immediately return those involved to where they came from.”
He asked the ministers to come up with a plan to “remove other illegal immigrants” and announced in his speech that the Supreme Court had passed some measures intended to force the refugees to leave.
Under international law, Israel cannot forcibly send refugees to countries where their lives or freedoms are at risk.
Ahead of his official visit to Cyprus, Netanyahu said the group of ministers is seeking to deport 1,000 Eritreans involved in Saturday’s violence.
There are 25,000 African immigrants living in Israel, especially citizens from Sudan and Eritrea.
But Israel says it has no legal obligation to protect most of the refugees as it accepts them as economic migrants.
