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Israel’s secret human trafficking: Trading refugees and weapons with Africa

Wednesday, 13 July 2016 6:33 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 13 July 2016 6:33 AM ]

African asylum seekers participate in a protest march in Tel Aviv, Israeli-occupied territories, 28 December 2013. (EPA)

Is Israel secretly trafficking thousands of refugees to Africa? There are some 45,000 African asylum seekers in the occupied territories. Many have been forced to protest their appalling living conditions.

The appalling conditions are within the Israeli-occupied territories. Ninety-two percent of them are from Eritrea and Sudan, with thousands now being deported by the regime. Over 3,000 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum-seekers have left Israel over the past two years alone — not for their home countries, but under a deal shrouded in secrecy, for Uganda and Rwanda instead. What exactly is going on and are several African countries complicit in Israeli activities?

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns from a historic visit to Uganda for the 40th anniversary of the Entebbe raid, African asylum-seekers remain stranded in limbo there. Israel continues to insist that the asylum-seekers are not refugees, but labor migrants seeking work, and that they are leaving voluntarily. As the Ugandan and Rwandan governments deny that any refugee deals exist between them and Israel, are refugees being swapped for benefits?

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