Eritrean leader criticizes Israel's migrant deportation plan
JOHANNESBURG -- In a rare interview, Eritrea's president has expressed his displeasure with Israel's plan to deport tens of thousands of African migrants, saying they deserve far more than the $3,500 they were offered to leave.
President Isaias Afwerki's interview on a government website Wednesday said the migrants from his country and Sudan paid a "high price" to human traffickers to reach Israel and deserve more like $50,000.
"They need fair compensation to start a new life in their home country," Afwerki said in the interview with local media. He said all those who wish to return home "have every right to do so," and that Eritrea has offered to register all of its roughly 20,000 migrants but Israeli authorities had refused.
Many Eritreans leaving the east African nation claim they fled a restrictive regime under Afwerki, where men are often forced into a military service with slavery-like conditions. They say they cannot return.
In the interview, Afwerki claimed instead that the Eritrean migrants were enticed abroad to organize an armed opposition but that the "subversive schemes" failed and the migrants now have become a burden.
