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Nearly 25,000 asylum seekers and their supporters have demonstrated in central Tel Aviv against plans for their mass expulsion. Rights groups hope a top court delay could keep the migrants in the country. Migrants and Israelis took to the streets of central Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest against plans to deport thousands of Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers from the country. Haaretz newspaper reported some 25,000 people participated in the rally.
The Israeli government has ordered the migrants leave for an unnamed African destination in exchange for €2,800 ($3,500) and a plane ticket, or they will be locked up indefinitely.
25,000 protest in Tel Aviv against Israel's asylum seeker deportation planhttps://t.co/iBGQZenaIk
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) March 25, 2018
Other asylum seekers were deported to Uganda and Rwanda.
The deportations were due to begin in a week’s time, but Israel’s supreme court earlier this month temporarily blocked the controversial plan after a legal challenge from groups opposed to the deportations. The Israeli government has been given until Monday to file its response.
Several migrant aid organizations publicized Saturday’s protest on social media, calling for alternative solutions to the deportations, including moving the migrants outside of Tel Aviv, where most of them live.