A 2018 study by legal experts at Oxford University found the deportees had no proper identity papers upon arrival in Rwanda. Their only document of that kind, an Israeli-produced travel document, was taken away from them.

“Throughout the journey, the interviewees were subjected to human trafficking, incarceration, the threat of forcible deportation to Eritrea, harsh conditions of starvation, violence, slavery in torture camps in Libya and a dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Europe,” the study said.

The policy was unpopular in Israel, with thousands demonstrating outside the Rwandan embassy in the Israeli city of Herzilia.

In January 2018, the Israeli supreme court ordered the suspension of the scheme because aspects of the government’s approach were not compatible with the 1951 Refugee Convention. 

The following April, Mr Netanyahu announced that he was abandoning the scheme so Israel could “rethink” its approach to the refugee crisis, but did not elaborate further.

Australia’s ‘Pacific Solution’ continues to win votes

Australia’s asylum system is regarded as one of the toughest in the world.

Although the country has welcomed thousands of refugees in recent decades, many seeking a new life down under have been sent to offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, a remote island to the north-east of Australia that was once famous for its phosphate production.

Most of those who fall victim to Australia’s strict asylum seeker policy are boat people from Asia and the Middle East who took the dangerous voyage south from Indonesia, hoping to find refuge in a land built on strong migrant traditions.

But the policy has not always proved popular. In 2001, the government introduced the “Pacific Solution”, with would-be refugees refused entry to Australia and sent to remote island states that were paid millions of dollars to accommodate them.

The policy at the time ensured that no asylum seekers from these offshore camps would be resettled in Australia, sending a message to other boat people that they would not be welcome. It proved a success, stopping the flow of illegal migrants and ensuring another term in office for the Liberal government of the day under prime minister John Howard.

Only recently has the problem been resolved, with many of the asylum seekers under virtual imprisonment on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea being found new homes elsewhere. Some gained entry to the United States and more recently to New Zealand.

But not all have been resettled. Papua New Guinea’s Supreme court ruled last year that the Manus Island detention centre was illegal. Those who were left behind were either sent to Nauru or invited to become permanent residents of Papua New Guinea.

While it is not seen as an acceptable outcome for those seeking asylum, it continues to win votes – a proposition that will not be lost on the Liberal-National Party coalition government in next month’s Australian general election.