Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit plans to grant Israeli citizenship to several hundred Darfur refugees and give them immigrant status.
"Israel cannot ignore the problem of the Darfur refugees," Sheetrit said during a meeting with Kadima supporters in Petach Tikva Tuesday evening. "We were refugees ourselves and we must deal with the refugees' problems with sensitivity and humanity."
Minister Sheetrit announced that he planned to decide, in cooperation with the UN, on the number of refugees who would be absorbed in the country. Sheetrit reminded his audience that Prime Minister Menachem Begin did the same for Vietnam refugees in the Seventies. "We owe this moral decision to the refugees," he stated.
The minister explained that a special budget would be allocated for the Sudanese' absorption, and that they would be treated just like new olim. He also stressed that this new policy has been formulated together with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.