Justices Dorit Beinish, Ayala Procaccia and Eliezer Rivlin ruled there was no reason for their involvement.

The rights organizations - the Hotline for Migrant Workers, Kav L'Oved, the Adva Institute and Physicians for Human Rights - argued the government isn't carrying out its decision to allow the foreign workers to use 1,000 places in special holding facilities, in addition to the existing facilities.

In the High Court Sunday, Yochi Genassin for the State Attorney's Office said the implementation of the government's decision to create 1,000 places at holding centers isn't a precondition for deporting the workers.

The immigration police draws its authority to deport illegal alien workers from the appropriate law and doesn't need any government approval, she said.

Genassin told the High Court that a third holding facility is currently under construction in Moshav Tzohar in the Eshkol Region in the south of the country. Workers will be held there with four to eight people to an air-conditioned room. There will be 50 places to start with, rising to 250.

One of the two facilities currently available is the Michal center in the Hadera police station compound, intended for 84 women. It was established as a result of the increasing trade in women. The second facility is the Renaissance Hotel in Nazareth, with places for about 300 workers.

In addition to these special facilities, there are about 400 foreign workers due for deportation in Ma'asiyahu Prison.

Genassin rejected the organizations' claims that workers are being held in sub-human conditions. She added that the Immigration Authority is doing everything in its power to reduce the length of the workers' detention before deportation to a maximum of three days, and also to persuade illegal foreign workers to leave so that there will be no need to hold them.

Genassin also emphasized that no more workers are being detained until there are adequate lock-up facilities for them.

A report from the Immigration Authority, which was presented to the High Court, indicated that between September 1, 2002, and February 16, 2003, a total of 21,741 foreign workers living illegally in Israel had left the country. Of these, 8,621 had been deported, with the remainder leaving of their own volition.