By Allan Olingo

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Uganda could be Israel’s only hope for a home for some of the African immigrants it plans to relocate after it became known that none would be going to Rwanda as earlier believed.

The information emerged in a Tel Aviv court on Thursday when the Israeli government disclosed that a deal with “the other third country” (believed to be Uganda) was “imminent” and that a special envoy it had dispatched to the country had assured it of safe conditions for the immigrants.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration is under national and international pressure over plans to deport thousands of African immigrants.

The first batch of 278 Africans had been detained pending deportation to two African countries that were believed to be Rwanda and Uganda. But human-rights groups have filed a case in the High Court to stop the forced relocations.

On Monday, Mr Netanyahu said in a Facebook post that the deal with Rwanda was off.

“In recent weeks, amid enormous pressure on Rwanda by the New Israel Fund and sources in the European Union, Rwanda has withdrawn from the agreement and refused to accept infiltrators from Israel that were forcibly deported. Our previous plan to send them to Rwanda is no longer feasible as a result of legal constraints as well as political difficulties on their part. This has seen us cancel the previous deportation policies we had issued,” Mr Netanyahu said.

UNHCR deal

On the same day, the Prime Minister called a press conference in which he praised a new deal with the UNHCR to settle African migrants in Western countries, while a similar number would be given temporary residency in Israel.

“This agreement will allow for the departure from Israel of 16,250 migrants to developed countries like Canada or Germany or Italy,” Mr Netanyahu said.

But Germany and Italy denied such an arrangement existed and said they had not signed agreements to absorb African migrants from Israel. Canada ,on the other hand, has a refugee repatriation agreement with Tel Aviv.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister sent out a statement suspending the deal with UNHCR, pending further review. 

The deal fell through following backlash from right-wing politicians, and his traditional supporters. 

Mr Netanyahu is facing political pressure due to corruption allegations. 

State secret

When the case came up on Wednesday, the court was informed that Israel had sent a special envoy to a second “third country” to ensure that they would not back out of the deal.

In a brief to the High Court on Wednesday, Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit said Israel had secret agreements with “these two third countries” to take in asylum seekers.

“Just because Netanyahu broke his own state secret declaration by revealing who the first third country was doesn’t mean that the second third country can now be named. That’s still a state secret for now,” Mr Mandelblit wrote.

On Wednesday, 58 African asylum seekers who had been held in a detention facility in southern Israel were released: Another 220 continue to be held in the hope that the “third county” will take them in.

“If the attorney general is not convinced that he has before him everything that is necessary to start an involuntary deportation to this second third-party country, the remaining detainees will be released from custody,” the state’s response reads.

The government then requested an extension from the court, to continue holding the 220 immigrants as a deal with Uganda was deemed “highly probable”.

'Non-existent' deal

However, Uganda’s Foreign Affairs ministry has denied meeting any special envoy or sanctioning a visit from Tel Aviv in what it termed as a “non-existent” deal.

Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Patrick Mugoya referred The EastAfrican to the Internal Affairs unit. There was no official communication by press time.

Observers say pressure from a shaky political base, and an upcoming election could have led to Mr Netanyahu changing his mind on the deal with Rwanda — which Kigali has vehemently denied.

This past week, Rwanda denied ever having a deal with Israel even after Mr Netanyahu’s formal confirmation of one.

“We can neither ‘meet the requirements’ nor surrender to ‘international pressure’ for a deal that never existed. This is simple logic. Every country should deal with its internal issues without looking for scapegoats elsewhere,” Rwanda’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Olivier Nduhungirehe told The EastAfrican. 

“We have never signed any deal whatsoever with Israel. As much as we have a general open door policy on the refugees, we need to restate that our condition is that those migrants must be willing to come to Rwanda of their own free will.”

Uganda’s State Minister for International Affairs Henry Okello said that if any migrants were to arrive from Israel, Kampala would send them back on the same airline.

“As far as we are concerned, we do not have a contract, any understanding, formal or informal, with Israel for them to dump their refugees in our country,” Mr Okello said.

Israel says it has more than 40,000 of these refugees within its territory and has argued that they pose a security risk. 

-Additional reporting by Ivan Mugisha