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HMW Quarterly Newsletter Issue no. 11, December 2007


Labour Trafficking in Israel

Background
Over the past several years, we have made significant progress in combating sex trafficking. Awareness has risen, along with enforcement against traffickers and rights afforded to survivors. However, during this period trafficking for labour has become an increasingly severe problem.

Cases of labour trafficking bear many of the same characteristics as those of sex trafficking including: total loss of freedom of movement, extreme deception or coercion, being passed from hand to hand like an object, complete dependence on the employer/trafficker, isolation, passport confiscation and receipt of little or no money for services rendered. The impact on survivors is also similar; they can suffer from trauma and often need emergency humanitarian assistance including shelter.

The nature of labour trafficking cases in Israel varies nevertheless some generalizations can be made. Most of the trafficking cases we handle are women from Sri Lanka, India and Nepal who don't speak English or Hebrew. They are brought to Israel to work as domestics or care givers. Despite paying thousands of dollars for the right to work in Israel, the survivors are never issued legal work permits leaving them vulnerable to deportation upon arrival. Some manage to reach us before arrest whereas others we meeting in detention centres. A partner organization, Kav LaOved, encounters many cases where Thai men are brought to Israel for work in agriculture and are subsequently subjected to conditions of forced labour and extreme exploitation. To date this year, we have identified and assisted 10 survivors of labour trafficking.

In 2006 Israel was downgraded to the Tier Two Watch List in the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons report for inaction regarding trafficking for labour. Consequently, the issued received renewed attention by the government and in October 2006, the Israeli Parliament passed comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation. This new legislation outlawed labour and other forms of trafficking (sex trafficking was already illegal) while specifying a number of rights for survivors.

Despite its passage, the law has not yet been implemented on the ground. Rather, survivors of labour trafficking continue to be regarded as illegal aliens by the authorities. As such, they are arrested and detained in preparation for deportation- sometimes within days, weeks or months of arriving in Israel. Because the survivors are not properly identified by the authorities, they are not offered information on their rights and options or assistance in accessing rehabilitation.

In 2008, we will build on our success combating trafficking for sexual exploitation and our knowledge of the migrant worker community and apply it to labour trafficking. Some of our primary foci will include:
  • Identification of survivors and provision of humanitarian aid and para-legal representation.
  • Establishment of a safe and coordinated return programme with NGOs in source countries.
  • Ensuring that all survivors receive appropriate legal redress, rehabilitation, legal representation, visas and more from the State through legal action and advocacy.
  • Working with the government, in both training and advocacy.
  • Initiating media items and planning public events aimed at raising awareness of the issue..

Profile of a Survivor: K's Story

K, 35 years old, is married and the mother of three children aged three, 10 and 12. In her native country of Nepal, K. owned a restaurant. Although it brought in a meager profit, it ensured the family's survival.

Nevertheless, a representative of a manpower agency informed her that she could significantly increase her earnings by working in Israel. K. subsequently signed a contract which promised her work as a caregiver for $600 a month – including one day off. Reasoning that she could both repay her dept and support her family, they sold the restaurant to finance the $7,000 fee demanded by the agency.

K. arrived in Israel in January of 2007. She was met at the airport by the manager [trafficker] of the manpower agency which had recruited her to come to Israel. He took her to an apartment filled with other Nepalese nationals, located in the same building as his residence. The conditions were abysmal; the apartment was in the midst of renovations leaving parts of it without lighting; she was not provided with sufficient food nor was there a bed- rather she was required to sleep on a mattress on the floor with no bed linens.

K. quickly realized she had been deceived. The trafficker informed her that the contract she signed in Nepal was worthless. He confiscated her passport and warned her that if she escaped and was caught, she would be deported for lack of legal status. K. felt trapped; although not locked in the apartment, she was locked in the building. Furthermore, she was hampered by her debt, fear of deportation, inability to speak English or Hebrew and no knowledge of who to approach for assistance.

K.'s trafficker 'loaned' her to various employers. Work assignments lasted anywhere from one day to three weeks with her always returning to the same apartment in between jobs. K. earned no more than a few hundred shekels for several months of work as the people she worked for either didn't pay her or paid her very little. Furthermore, her trafficker forced her to pay various 'fees' for transportation, a tourist visa and more.

After about five months, K. managed to escape –without any of her belongings or her passport. In May, she came to our office seeking aid. While in the process of requesting legal status on her behalf, K. was arrested by the Immigration Authority and detained.

We asked the police to launch an investigation of her case and to release her but our initial request for release was denied. Consequently, we filed a district court appeal asking for her immediate release and transfer to the shelter for trafficked women. The court agreed to release her for bail of 5,000NIS, a sum that we protested and which the court subsequently agreed to waive. Meanwhile, K. found a friend willing to take her in so we withdrew our request that she be transferred to the shelter. With our help, K. was awarded two temporary visas, the most recent valid until the end of this year. Meanwhile the police continue to investigate her case.


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