With a $3,500 Israeli gov’t grant in their pockets, about 1,705 illegal African migrants left this past month, mostly back to their country of origin.
A record 1,705 African asylum seekers left Israel in February, Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced Thursday. He also predicted that the wave of departures would continue in the coming months.
![Thousands of African asylum seekers stage protest](https://www.haaretz.com/polopoly_fs/1.567111.1393514618%21/image/4231140227.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_640/4231140227.jpg)
Thousands of African asylum seekers during their recent protest – Photo: AFP
“This figure for the last month surprises me for the better,” Sa’ar said at a conference of Population and Immigration Authority directors in Ashkelon. “If the trend we identify continues, and I’ve been informed that it will continue into March, there will be a departure of enormous proportions from Israel this year.