When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital MagazineNEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch
Israel

Israel Sends South Sudanese Illegal Migrants Back To Africa

Worldcrunch

YEDIOT AHARONOT, HAARETZ (Israel), LE TEMPS (Switzerland), AL JAZEERA (Qatar)

TEL AVIV - Amidst rising tensions over the issue of illegal immigration in Israel, more than 100 undocumented South Sudanese were sent back to their native country on Monday.

Haaretz reported that the migrants, including 43 children, underwent a registration and identification process at Ben Gurion International airport in Tel Aviv before boarding a plane for Juba, the capital of the newly founded South Sudanese state. The migrants each received $1,300 per adult and $500 per child.

Ultra-orthodox Interior Minister Eli Yishai was at the terminal to oversee the departure, which is the beginning of a process involving 2,000 South Sudanese. Yishai - who previously stated that the illegal migrants were a threat to the Jewish character of Israel - said that he did not "belittle the pain of the families returning home."

Aid groups disputed the voluntary nature of the migrant's departure. An Al Jazeera report said that security forces told the migrants that they had a choice between leaving Israel or going to jail.

Illegal immigration is a hotly debated topic in Israel, and the latest departures are only a fraction of the undocumented population. Le Temps reported that there are approximately 650,000 illegal immigrants currently in the country. Israel cannot deport the 150,000 North Sudanese and Eritrean migrants because of several legal obstacles, including collective protections guaranteed by the United Nations.

Activists quoted by Ynet News, the English website for Yediot Aharonot, said that sending these North Sudanese and Eritrean migrants back to their country would put their well-being at risk. "If we have no choice, we'd prefer to remain in prison in Israel rather than be sent back to Eritrea. We ask that Israel protect us," said Gabriel Takala, a 31-year-old Eritrean asylum-seeker interviewed by Ynet News.

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Green

Gimme Shelter! Using Tech To Rethink How We Protect Endangered Species

Human-made shelters don’t always keep creatures out of harm’s way. Can technology help design a better protect birds and possums?

Photograph of two swallows peeking outside of a blue wooden bird nest

Swallows peak outside of a bird nest

Mariko Margetson/Unsplash
Marta Zaraska

In 2016, Ox Lennon was trying to peek in the crevices inside a pile of rocks. They considered everything from injecting builders’ foam into the tiny spaces to create a mold to dumping a heap of stones into a CT scanner. Still, they couldn’t get the data they were after: how to stack rocks so that a mouse wouldn’t squeeze through, but a small lizard could hide safely inside.

Lennon, then a Ph.D. student at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, aimed to protect skinks, snake-like lizards on which non-native mice prey. When road construction near Wellington displaced a local population of the reptiles, they were moved to a different site. But the new location lacked the rock piles that skinks use as shelter.

So, Lennon and their colleagues set out to create a mice-proof pile of rocks. It proved harder than they thought.

Keep reading...Show less

You've reached your limit of free articles.

To read the full story, start your free trial today.

Get unlimited access. Cancel anytime.

Exclusive coverage from the world's top sources, in English for the first time.

Insights from the widest range of perspectives, languages and countries.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

You've reached your limit of one free article.

Get unlimited access to Worldcrunch

You can cancel anytime.

SUBSCRIBERS BENEFITS

Exclusive International news coverage

Ad-free experience NEW

Weekly digital MagazineNEW

9 daily & weekly Newsletters

Access to Worldcrunch archives

Free trial

30-days free access, then $2.90
per month.

Annual Access BEST VALUE

$19.90 per year, save $14.90 compared to monthly billing.save $14.90.

Subscribe to Worldcrunch

The latest