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.

At the beginning of the year, the authority published data that in 2017, 3,300 African asylum-seekers left Israel of their own free will, after they were promised safe absorption in Rwanda and given a grant of $3,500. This is how the nation would deal with those bound for deportation now.

After the law passed, it became clear that things aren’t as simple as Israel has tried to depict them. Rwanda has denied that it signed an agreement promising to absorb the deportees. “In reference to the rumors that have been recently spread in the media, the Government of Rwanda wishes to inform that it has never signed any secret deal with Israel regarding the relocation of African migrants,” it communicated Jan. 22, after a demonstration in front of the Rwandan Embassy in Tel Aviv. In addition, testimony from asylum-seekers sent to Rwanda came to light that further contradicted the reassuring messages of the Israeli government and immigration authority.