Aliza Olmert, the wife of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, is behind the plan to send several hundred illegal entrants from Africa to Ethiopia, an official involved in the plan said Thursday.  The government is also considering Ghana and Kenya as possible destinations for 1,900 Africans who infiltrated Israel via the Egyptian border.

Olmert has supported returning the illegal entrants to Egypt, saying he trusts Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to guarantee their safety, as Mubarak previously promised to do.  However, human rights groups have warned that many Africans who were returned to Egypt either “disappeared” or were sent to prison, often to prisons where torture is known to be used. 

Human rights groups did not approve of Israel’s plan to send the illegal entrants to a new country, saying the entrants were refugees and that Israel was obligated to establish a safe haven for them within Israeli territory.  Olmert rejected the groups’ arguments, saying that fewer than 500 of those who entered Israel illegally were refugees, while the rest were job seekers or criminals.  The genuine refugees have been granted asylum, Olmert said.