Israel has ditched a controversial plan to force African asylum seekers to choose between deportation and a period of detention, in a deal to resettle thousands in Canada, Italy and Germany.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, announced today that the country had reached “unprecedented understandings” with the UN Refugee Agency over the migrants.
In exchange for sending more than 16,000 refugees to western countries, Israel has indicated it will regularise the legal status of many of those remaining.
Israel had initially proposed to deport many to other African nations, including Rwanda and Uganda. The controversial measure, announced last year, sparked protests and international condemnation.
