The Israeli government offers cash and free flights to African asylum seekers who agree to return home or fly to other African countries — an incentive to get them to leave. The measure is bringing down the number of African migrants in Israel, currently about 45,000.
But an inadvertent effect of this policy is that some African men — hoping to get smuggled to Europe — are abandoning their families in Israel to claim the government cash.
In Tel Aviv, Brkitay Gebru, a 29-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker, says her husband disappeared in February. She believes he flew to Africa with Israeli help.
Now Gebru is working long hours as a cleaner to support two energetic boys who wonder when their father is coming home.
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