Israel says it has reached 'unprecedented' deal to resettle African migrants in the West

African migrants hold signs during a protest outside the Holot detention centre in the Negev Desert, southern Israel last month. Photo / AP file

The Israeli Government announced that it would scrap controversial plans to deport African asylum seekers, saying it had reached an "unprecedented understanding" with the United Nations to resettle many of these migrants in Western countries.

In a statement released by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, Israel said it was working with the United Nations to resettle at least 16,250 migrants in Western nations under the scheme, which would be implemented in stages over five years.

Netanyahu later said at a news conference that Canada, Italy and Germany would be among the countries where migrants would be resettled.

Under the plan, Netanyahu said, Israel would offer temporary residency status to the same number of asylum seekers as were resettled in Western nations. The UN refugee agency said it could not immediately comment on the matter, but a spokeswoman said it would release a statement later in the day.

About 38,000 Sudanese and Eritrean migrants live in Israel. Most of them entered the country illegally via the land border with Egypt before a border fence was completed in 2012. Many flocked to neighbourhoods in southern Tel Aviv, rapidly changing these historically working-class areas into what became known as "Little Africa" and sparking tension with the local Jewish population.

Israel had begun handing out notices to male African migrants in February, warning them that they had two months to leave the country or face jail. These migrants were offered US$3500 to relocate to an unnamed "third country" - widely reported to be Uganda or Rwanda - or return to their home country.

Advocacy groups working on behalf of the migrants had challenged the deportation plans in Israel's high court, securing a temporary freeze on the plan on March 15.

Moves to expel African asylum seekers were largely popular with the right-wing Government's base, which viewed them as economic migrants who had entered the country illegally in search of work.

But liberal Israelis argued that many of these migrants would face persecution if they returned home, with some comparing the asylum seekers' plight to that facing Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.

The Israeli Government pushed back against critics, in particular those who labelled the deportation policy racist, noting that thousands of Ukrainian and Georgian migrants were deported last year without being offered the relocation payment that was being offered to migrants from Sudan and Eritrea.

In its statement today, Netanyahu's office noted legal constraints and political difficulties with the proposed third-country destinations for the migrants as factors in its move toward a compromise.

The statement also said that the new agreement would create a special body to implement a "rehabilitation plan" for neighbourhoods in southern Tel Aviv.

The Movement to Halt the Deportation of Asylum Seekers, a local advocacy group, said that the new plan marked an "unprecedented achievement" for the thousands of Israelis who had rallied in support of migrants over the past few months and that it offered Israel an opportunity to make amends and forge a more responsible policy for the asylum seekers remaining in the country.