Three African asylum seekers who left Israel were among those killed by ISIS in Libya on Sunday, the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants said yesterday. Reports suggest that the asylum seekers were urged to leave Israel by the Israeli government– “coerced,” by one account.

Haaretz:

The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants reported on Tuesday that three asylum seekers who left Israel for a third country over the past year have been executed by the Islamic State in Libya. According to the report, the victims were identified by family members and friends.

Ilan Lior of Haaretz spoke to a relative of “T,” the man in the photograph.

“He had been in Israel since the end of 2007. He decided to go back after the [Israeli] Ministry of Interior told him he would be better off.” According to Mesi, T. “went back to Uganda or Rwanda – I think Rwanda – where they are not accepted. From there he went on to Sudan, and from Sudan to Libya.” She said that he was not able to remain in Libya, and tried to reach Europe by boat. “I understood that the boat was returned to Libya,” she said, “where they were arrested. Rumors have it that the extreme Islamic group snatched them from the jail itself.”

Elisabeth Tsurkov says the asylum-seekers were coerced to leave and she reports virulent racist comments by Israelis on the plight of these three men.