Israel ha lanzado un programa para financiar la salida del país a los inmigrantes que se encuentran en situación irregular. De no avenirse al ofrecimiento, el Estado hebreo les amenza con el ingreso en prisión si son detenidos después de marzo. Concretamente, el ofrecimiento consiste en un pago de 3.500 dólares y un billete de avión para sus países de origen o terceros países.

La mayoría de inmigrantes en situación irregular que se encuentran es Israel proceden de Eritrea y Sudán y, entre los principales argumentos, aseguran que han salido huyendo de guerras y persecuciones y, también, procurando mejorar su situación económica.

El primer ministro israelí, Benjamin Netanyahu, ha asegurado en la presentación del programa que el muro que completó Israel en la frontera con Egipto en el año 2013 ha logrado reducir de forma efectiva el flujo de "infiltrados ilegales" después de que alrededor de 60.000 cruzaran la desértica frontera.

An immigration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there are some 38,000 migrants living illegally in Israel, and some 1,420 are being held in two detention centres. "Beyond the end of March, those who leave voluntarily will receive a significantly smaller payment that will shrink even more with time, and enforcement measures will begin," the official said, referring to incarceration.

Some have lived for years in Israel and work in low-paying jobs that many Israelis shun. Israel has granted asylum to fewer than one percent of those who have applied and has a years-long backlog of applicants.

Rights groups have accused Israel of being slow to process African migrants' asylum requests as a matter of policy and denying legitimate claims to the status.

Netanyahu has called the migrants’ presence a threat to Israel’s social fabric and Jewish character, and one government minister has referred to them as “a cancer”.

Teklit Michael, a 29-asylum seeker from Eritrea living in Tel Aviv, said in response to the Israeli plan that paying money to other governments to take in Africans was akin to "human trafficking and smuggling".

"We don't know what is waiting for us (in Rwanda and Uganda)," he told Reuters by telephone. "They prefer now to stay in prison (in Israel) instead."

In his remarks, Netanyahu cited the large presence of African migrants in Tel Aviv's poorer neighbourhoods, where he said "veteran residents" - a reference to Israelis - no longer feel safe.

"So today, we are keeping our promise to restore calm, a sense of personal security and law and order to the residents of south Tel Aviv and those in many other neighbourhoods," he said.