Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he is canceling a new agreement with the U.N. refugee agency to relocate thousands of African migrants, after announcing he had suspended the deal.

Axar.az informs citing DS.

"I have listened carefully to the many comments on the agreement. As a result, and after I again weighed the advantages and disadvantages, I decided to cancel the deal," Netanyahu said in a statement issued by the prime minister's office.

Media reports on Monday, citing a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, said the deal had effectively canceled an Israeli plan to deport the migrants to unnamed African destinations, widely believed to be Rwanda and Uganda, with whom Israel has reached a secret agreement.

"It's a good agreement," Netanyahu had told reporters Monday.

"It enables us to solve this problem in a way that serves, protects the interests of the state of Israel and gives a solution to the residents of southern Tel Aviv and other neighborhoods, and also for the people who came into Israel."

The Africans, nearly all from dictatorial Eritrea and war-torn Sudan, say they fled for their lives and faced renewed danger if they returned. Israel has said it considers the vast majority of the 35,000-40,000 migrants to be job seekers and has said it has no legal obligation to keep them.

Critics at home and in the Jewish American community have called the government's proposed response unethical and a stain on Israel's image as a refuge for Jewish migrants.