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Welcome to the archives of Refugees Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on April 1, 2019, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on refugees and migration. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.

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Executive Summary for April 3rd

We review the latest issues related to refugees, including Israel’s short-lived deal with UNHCR to relocate African asylum seekers, a deadly bus crash in Turkey, and Pope Francis’ Easter baptism of an undocumented Nigerian man who became a local hero.

Published on April 3, 2018 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Israel’s Netanyahu Makes – and Breaks – Deal for Asylum Seekers

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a deal with the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) to save African asylum seekers from deportation a few hours after it was announced.

Announcing the deal a little earlier, UNHCR said 16,000 Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers in Israel would be relocated to other countries through various schemes, including sponsorship and labor migration. Other asylum seekers would receive legal status in Israel.

Netanyahu at first praised the agreement – naming Germany and Italy as countries that would take the refugees, although they denied knowledge of any arrangement – but after facing political backlash in Israel the premier called off the deal.

His government had threatened to make some 39,000 African asylum seekers choose between voluntary departure to Rwanda or indefinite detention, but the plan was challenged in Israeli courts and Netanyahu said Rwanda had recently pulled out under political pressure.

This story has been updated after the deal was cancelled.

17 Killed in Turkey Bus Crash

A 14-seater minibus crammed with more than 50 migrants crashed in eastern Turkey, killing 17 people.

The bus hit a lamppost and caught fire, while a second bus carrying migrants ran over some of the survivors, according to Turkey’s Anadolu news agency.

The agency said people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran were traveling in the buses and 13 people, including the driver, were detained.

Pope Baptizes Undocumented Nigerian Who Captured Thief

Among the people baptized by Pope Francis over Easter was a Nigerian migrant who became a local hero when he captured a supermarket thief.

John Ogah, 31, was undocumented in Italy and was begging outside the supermarket in Rome when it was held up by an Italian man wielding a meat cleaver. Ogah seized the man and held him until police arrived, when Ogah disappeared, fearing for his status.

Local police tracked him down and helped him formalize his legal status in Italy. The local police captain served as his godfather at the baptism service at St. Peter’s Basilica on March 31.

In his Easter Sunday address the next day, Pope Francis appealed for peace in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, reconciliation in the “Holy Land” and an end to “carnage” in Syria.

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