Supreme Court Justice Miriam Naor yesterday ordered that a separate hearing be held for each detainee, that the hearings be attended by translators who speak a language spoken by the detainees, and that each detainee be provided with all relevant documents from the previous hearing.

The detainees, from Togo, Liberia, Rwanda and Guinea, sneaked into Israel from Egypt during the past three months. The Court of Custody originally ordered the detainees be freed, after having been held without detention orders or under injunctions that did not apply to them. The Interior Ministry appealed the ruling, and the Tel Aviv District Court agreed and overturned the previous ruling in late May.

However, two attorneys from the Refugee Rights Program at Tel Aviv University and a Hotline for Migrant Workers representative argued that the hearing was held without translators and legal representation, some of the detainees had not been present, and the refugees were not allowed to review relevant documents.

The advocacy groups also protested to the Supreme Court that the hearing addressed all 44 detainees as one.

The hotline said it was satisfied with the ruling, saying it is the first time that foreign laborers' deportation proceedings have been required to include translation and legal representation