In a hearing held by the HCJ yesterday (Sunday) with regards to the NGOs petition against the Anti Infiltration Law, Adv. Yochi Gnesin, representing the government, claimed that there is already an agreement with a third country that agreed to accept the Eritreans from Israel. She refused to reveal the name of the country or the conditions under which the Eritreans will be sent there.

Eritreans calling from Saharonim prison told the Hotline for Migrant Workers today that they were gathered by the authorities in prison and were told to be prepared since a third country was found for them in Africa. They were not told which country.

The decision issued by the HCJ yesterday, ordering the State to provide an affidavit within a week about the third country to which the refugees would be deported and all the relevant details regarding this agreement, unique in its kind. A week after the State’s affidavit, we (the NGOs) will need to supply the Court with a short statement (Hebrew).

According to an article by Barak Ravid and Amos Harel today: Unnamed senior official confirming that an agreement has been reached with some country to accept the refugees, says the disastrous deportation to South Sudan is the model.

Here is an article by Or Kashti in Haaretz about this offer.

It should be mentioned that toward the end of the hearing at the HCJ yesterday, Adv. Gnesin stated that the agreement between Israel and the third country will remain secret “because all the countries of the world want an agreement like this, but it seems that we have something to offer that other countries do not” (this is not an exact quote, but a paraphrase).