Israel’s interior minister said Israel will offer citizenship to some of the estimated 300 refugees in the country from Sudan’s Darfur region.
Meir Sheetrit said Wednesday that some of the refugees will become Israelis but that Israel may cap the number it will naturalize, according to The Associated Press.
Some 2,500 to 3,000 Sudanese have crossed illegally into Israel from Egypt in recent years, but Israeli government sources say only about 10 percent are said to be from Darfur. They say the remainder are economic migrants or refugees from other conflict-torn regions of Sudan, and Sheetrit reiterated Israel’s intention to return such migrants to Egypt.
Sheetrit said Israel would cooperate with the United Nations in setting a quota of refugees who would be naturalized.
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