ISRAELI Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today he wants Eritrean migrants involved in a violent clash in Tel Aviv to be deported immediately and has ordered a plan to remove the country’s African migrants.

The remarks from the leader of the most right-wing government in Israeli history came a day after bloody protests by rival groups of Eritreans in south Tel Aviv left dozens of people injured. 

Supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s government clashed in a south Tel Aviv neighbourhood near the Eritrean embassy.

Mr Netanyahu told a special ministerial meeting: “We want harsh measures against the rioters, including the immediate deportation of those who took part” and requested that the ministers present him with plans for the removal of “all the other illegal infiltrators.” 

About 25,000 African migrants live in Israel, mainly from Eritrea and Sudan, having fled conflict and repression. 

Israel recognises very few as asylum-seekers and has tried to force them out: measures have included withholding part of their wages until they agree to leave the country and sending some to a remote prison.

Under international law, Israel cannot forcibly send refugees back to a country where their life or liberty may be at risk.

Refugees’ supporters say Israel, a country founded upon the ashes of the Holocaust and built up by Jewish refugees, should welcome those seeking asylum. 

Sigal Rozen, from the Tel Aviv-based rights organisation Hotline for Refugees & Migrants, said Eritrean asylum-seekers are often hunted and harassed by the Eritrean government and its supporters inside Israel.

Opponents claim migrants have brought crime to the low-income southern Tel Aviv neighbourhoods where they have settled.

The clashes came as Eritrean government supporters marked the 30th anniversary of President Isaias Afwerki’s assumption of power.