The Chinese worker listened to Cohen, but it was clear that his Hebrew was far from fluent. He was able to get across to Cohen that he came from Beijing, that he had worked as a tiler, and that he had been arrested in Kiryat Yam. But when Cohen asked for details of his arrest and whether he was being properly treated, the Chinese man stared at him uncomprehendingly. Cohen ended the encounter by sending "regards to Beijing," and the fact-finding tour moved on.

This breakdown in communication between the MKs and the detainees repeated itself several times during the committee's unannounced visit, which took place yesterday afternoon. It seems to be the usual state of affairs here - a complete lack of translators of Asian languages and the intentional mixing of people from various countries has turned the hotel lockup into a veritable Tower of Babel.

Shevi Korzen, of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, says that everything possible is being done so that the detainees "will not know their rights and will not be able to claim them. Although the Immigration Administration has gotten a `blank check' from the government to deal with deportation of foreign workers, it has not invested money to ensure even minimal conditions for the detainees."

The communication problem is present at every stage of a worker's stay at the Renaissance. When his belongings are taken from him (if he arrived with any), he signs a form in Hebrew that is supposed to help him figure out whether everything has been returned to him when he leaves. The detention center physician, Dr. Mark Gorker, confesses that though he communicates with detainees in Hebrew, Turkish, Romanian and Russian, he is reduced to using sign language with the Chinese. A paper outlining the rights of the detainees, prepared by the Hotline for Migrant Workers, is posted at the entrance to the facility, in English only, and hanging some two meters above the floor."The intake process takes place in Hebrew." explained Lieutenant Colonel Gilada Helman. "Most of the staff speaks English. They can also communicate in Romanian, and most of the detainees definitely understand Hebrew."

The Renaissance Hotel, built in expectation of expanded Christian tourism to the area at the turn of the Millennium, officially became an incarceration facility for foreign workers in February of this year. Five hundred people are housed in the four-story hotel, some for weeks at a time. Each day, another 50 arrive, and a similar number leaves for Ben-Gurion Airport. On one of the floors, the MKs met up with Doro, a building worker who arrived in Israel from Romania in 1997, and speaks good Hebrew. For the last two weeks he has been held in a room with Chinese laborers, and one Moldavian, the only person he can communicate with. "Why can't all the Romanians be in one room?" Doro complained to the parliamentary committee. "In order not to create focal points of power," Lt. Col. Helman explained. "Then they start planning getaways and hunger strikes. But we make sure that there are at least a few in every room from the same country."

Doro told the MKs that on weekends, the detainees get only 20 minutes outside, if any, instead of the usual hour. Helman responded that personnel (mostly employed by a personnel contractor and not Prison Services staff) are cut back on the weekends, so it becomes more difficult to give the detainees outdoor time. In any case, Helman says, few of the detainees ask to go outside because the yard is very hot in the summer.

From their conversations with detainees and facility staff, the MKs discovered that some of the detainees spend weeks and months at the Renaissance because their embassies are in no hurry to produce the laisser-passers needed to replace the passports that their employers took from them illegally. This is the case mainly with regard to the embassies of Romania, China, and Moldavia (whose ambassador is on leave, says Helman).

MK Cohen announced at the end of the visit that he will summon the representatives of the embassies involved to a meeting of the Knesset committee and demand explanations for the delays.