The Population, Immigration, and Borders Authority announced Friday that it was extending the one-week deadline for South Sudanese migrants to voluntarily leave Israel in exchange for 1,000 euros and a flight ticket home courtesy of the State of Israel.
The Interior Ministry issued the ultimatum last week, saying the migrants would be arrested and expelled after the deadline was up.
PIBA stated that some 300 people in the South Sudanese migrant community had already opted to leave voluntarily. The entire community is estimated to number between 700 and 1500 people. The one week deadline was being extended due to the relative success of the operation, according to PIBA.
PIBA did not specify how long the deadline was being extended.
"Operation Going Back Home" was put into effect after the Jerusalem District Court ruled last week that the South Sudanese would not be in physical danger if they were returned to their country.
Some 300 South Sudanese migrants have been arrested by immigration authorities since the operation began in addition to the 300 who have agreed to leave voluntarily.
Members of a South Sudanese delegation currently visiting Israel told The Jerusalem Post on Friday that Israeli government officials promised them that the migrants who have been arrested in the past week would be released until their deportation.
PIBA denied ever making such a promise.
On Thursday, a group of Israel Prize laureates, leading academics and public figures called on the government to stop the "incitement against foreign asylum seekers."
The petition signed by the group stated that, while the government has a right to build a border fence in the South and decide who will enter Israel\’s borders, a policy of no immigration and no refugees is immoral. They called on the government to let asylum-seekers who cannot return to their countries of origin enter the work force temporarily.
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