Israel Will Not Sign UN Global Migration Pact - Prime Minister

Israel will not to sign a UN global compact for migration and will continue protecting its borders from undocumented migrants, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2018) Israel will not to sign a UN global compact for migration and will continue protecting its borders from undocumented migrants, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is set to be formally adopted at the UN conference in Morocco on December 10-11. In October, Austria and several other EU countries including the Czech Republic, Croatia and Poland announced that they would not be part of the UN global pact on migration. The United States and Hungary were the first nations which announced their plans not to join the future agreement.

"Israel will not accede to, and will not sign, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. We are committed to guarding our borders against illegal migrants.

This is what we have done and this is what we will continue to do," Netanyahu said, as quoted by his press service.

In recent years, Israeli authorities have practically reduced to zero the flow of migrants from Africa, who were crossing the country from Egypt. Israel is now seeking to deport about 40,000 undocumented African migrants, who managed to enter the country.

The migration pact, approved in July by all UN members except for the United States, aims to make the growing tide of international migration more safe and orderly, and came about as a response to the 2015 migration crisis that hit Europe. Though the treaty is not legally binding, some countries have expressed concerns that the compact could promote the liberalization of border crossing procedures.