Israeli parliament votes unanimously to advance legislation to deport illegal immigrants from Eritrea who express support for their native land’s regime.
A bill to deport Eritreans who illegally entered Israel if they support their home government passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset 51-0 Wednesday.
Yulia Malinovsky of the Opposition’s Israel Beytenu party, who submitted the proposed law in December, wrote in its explanatory portion that “an infiltrator who supports the Eritrean regime, from which he fled on the grounds that his life was in danger, is not truly in danger and therefore is not entitled to reside in the State of Israel.”
The bill allows the Interior Minister to deport such infiltrators either to their homeland or to a third country after proving that they support the regime, and it supplied several examples of such backing: organizing or participating in an event whose purpose is to show support for the government of President Isaias Afwerki, including events sponsored by the Eritrean embassy, and/or waving a picture of the country’s leader.