UN Urges Israel to Find Solutions to Issue of African Migrants

African migrants protest outside Israel's Supreme Court in Jerusalem January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
African migrants protest outside Israel's Supreme Court in Jerusalem January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
TT
20

UN Urges Israel to Find Solutions to Issue of African Migrants

African migrants protest outside Israel's Supreme Court in Jerusalem January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
African migrants protest outside Israel's Supreme Court in Jerusalem January 26, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) urged Israel on Tuesday to halt plans to forcibly return tens of thousands of migrants to Africa.

Last Wednesday, Israel said it would pay money to thousands of illegal African migrants to leave, and threatened them with prison if they were caught after the end of March, AFP reported.

The plan is targeting an estimated 38,000 people, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan, and offers the migrants $3,500 and a plane ticket if they leave by March.

AFP quoted UNHCR spokesman William Spindler as telling reporters in Geneva that the Israeli program was not “coherent” and “has been implemented not in a very transparent manner.”

“UNHCR is again appealing to Israel to halt its policy of relocating Eritreans and Sudanese to sub-Saharan Africa,” the agency said in a statement.

Spindler called on Israel to find alternative solutions to the problem, stressing that the UN was ready to help with formal resettlement through official channels.

He warned that the plans might ultimately target families and individuals whose applications for asylum have not been decided, or that asylum seekers might be taken to the airport handcuffed.

Spindler added that around 27,000 Eritreans and 7,700 Sudanese were living in Israel, but the authorities said they have granted asylum to only 11 of them since 2009.

He explained that over the past two years, UNHCR has interviewed 80 Eritrean refugees or asylum seekers in Rome, who arrived in Italy after a risky trip across Africa after leaving Israel for Rwanda.

“They suffered from abuse, torture and extortion all the way, before they risked their lives once again to cross the Mediterranean into Italy,” he said.



Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
TT
20

Australia Says Will Not Commit Troops in Advance to Any Conflict

Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Residential properties are seen near the Sydney Harbour Bridge in, Sydney, Australia, July 10, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Australia will not commit troops in advance to any conflict, Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy said on Sunday, responding to a report that the Pentagon has pressed its ally to clarify what role it would play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan.

Australia prioritizes its sovereignty and "we don't discuss hypotheticals", Conroy said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The decision to commit Australian troops to a conflict will be made by the government of the day, not in advance but by the government of the day," he said.

The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Elbridge Colby, the US under-secretary of defense for policy, has been pressing Australian and Japanese officials on what they would do in a Taiwan conflict, although the US does not offer a blank cheque guarantee to defend Taiwan.

Colby posted on X that the Department of Defense is implementing President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda of restoring deterrence, which includes "urging allies to step up their defense spending and other efforts related to our collective defense".

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, speaking in Shanghai at the start of a six-day visit to China that is likely to focus on security and trade, said Canberra did not want any change to the status quo on Taiwan.

Conroy said Australia was concerned about China's military buildup of nuclear and conventional forces, and wants a balanced Indo-Pacific region where no country dominates. He said China was seeking a military base in the Pacific, which was not in Australia's interest, Reuters reported.

'GOAL IS NO WAR'

Talisman Sabre, Australia's largest war-fighting exercise with the United States, opened on Sunday on Sydney Harbour and will involve 40,000 troops from 19 countries, including Japan, South Korea, India, Britain, France and Canada.

Conroy said China's navy might be watching the exercise to collect information, as it had done in the past.

The war games will span thousands of kilometers from Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island to the Coral Sea on Australia's east coast, in a rehearsal of joint war fighting, said Vice Admiral Justin Jones, chief of joint operations for the Australian Defense Force.

The air, sea, land and space exercises over two weeks will "test our ability to move our forces into the north of Australia and operate from Australia", Jones told reporters.

"I will leave it to China to interpret what 19 friends, allies and partners wanting to operate together in the region means to them. But for me... it is nations that are in search of a common aspiration for peace, stability, a free and open Indo-Pacific," he said.

US Army Lieutenant General Joel Vowell, deputy commanding general for the Pacific, said Talisman Sabre would improve the readiness of militaries to respond together and was "a deterrent mechanism because our ultimate goal is no war".

"If we could do all this alone and we could go fast, but because we want to go far, we have to do it together and that is important because of the instability that is resident in the region," Vowell said.

The United States is Australia's major security ally. Although Australia does not permit foreign bases, the US military is expanding its rotational presence and fuel stores on Australian bases, which from 2027 will have US Virginia submarines at port in Western Australia.