Israel is set to start Sunday the repatriation of illegal asylum-seekers from South Sudan, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

"The first plane of illegal infiltrators (leaves) tonight for South Sudan," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet session, "Next week another plane will leave. The government is today essentially starting the return of the illegal infiltrators to their lands of origin."

The prime minister noted a number of disincentives the authorities are implementing in order to limit -- and eventually end -- the flood of illegal asylum-seekers that have poured into Israel across the border from Egypt during the last three years.

There are upwards of 2,500 South Sudanese in Israel (although community activists put the number at around 800), out of the over 50,000 African infiltrators currently in the country, according to figures from the Israeli Population, Immigration and Borders Authority (PIBA).

Work crews expect to complete a 240-km security fence along Israel's largely-open border with Egypt by the end of this year, Netanyahu said, and pointed to a fast-tracked deportation process to home or sometimes to a third country, a newly-enacted law cracking down on employers who hire illegal workers, and a new policy of transferring new migrants directly to detention camps in Negev instead of dropping them off in Tel Aviv or elsewhere.

"The infiltrators come here to work," Netanyahu told his ministers, "If there will not be work for them here they will have no reason to come."

PIBA said Friday that it was granting an extension to the one- week deadline in "Operation Going Back Home" for South Sudanese to leave Israel, in which migrants are given 1,000 euros and a plane ticket home if they are going willingly.

About 300 South Sudanese have already agreed to leave, according to The Jerusalem Post.

"I am glad to go back to my country," one migrant told the Ynet news site as the migrants boarded buses heading for Ben-Gurion International Airport.

"We have a new country now and it's good for us," said a woman who gave her name as Theresa.

Meanwhile, in the compact Negev desert town of Arad, South Sudanese expressed Saturday night both joy and sadness over the pending deportations.

"We love the State of Israel and the residents of Arad. We wanted to stay here but the state legislated a law saying we must go to our country. I hope in the future we will come back," said Paul Ton.

"I have no choice but to go back," said Joseph Yafo, "I've been living in Israel for five years. I am going back to my country but I love Israel and Israelis very much. I hope there will be relations between the countries and I could come back."

Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai said earlier this month that "Those who arrive at our offices will not be arrested. They will have a week to leave the country of their own accord. Those who hide are arrested."

In a ruling in January, the interior ministry gave the South Sudanese a deadline of April 1 to leave on their own accord, or to be deported.

A spokesman for the African community in south Tel Aviv told Xinhua Thursday that the authorities "don't understand that this is a country that just became independent and it's still very unsafe," referring to the difficulties the deported immigrants might face in South Sudan.

In the past, the "collective protection" policy used to forbid immigrant expulsion based on humanitarian grounds. However, a district court in Jerusalem last month overruled the policy, noting that the immigrants' lives will no longer be in danger since South Sudan has become an independent country.

Yishai, a staunch advocate of deportations, said the sweep "is not aimed against infiltrators, but instead is meant to preserve Israel's character as a Zionist-Jewish country."

Many South Sudanese people protested to local media about the circumstances under which they were arrested. They said despite that they had promised to leave of their own accord in a week, the arrests took place anyway, only three days after the court's decision was issued.