Kav LaOved •Hotline For Migrant Workers
•Physicians for Human Rights-Israel •The Association for Civil Rights in Israel •Amnesty International – Israel
Press
Release – For Immediate Distribution
June 28th,
2011
US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report:
Israel
Must Refrain From Binding Mirant Workers to Their Employers
The US State
Department’s yearly report on global human trafficking, released yesterday
evening (9:00 PM Israeli time) once again classified Israel as a Tier 2 country
along with other states that do not meet the ‘minimal standards for the
elimination of trafficking’ within their borders. The report fiercely
criticizes Israel for being unprepared for changes in human trafficking
patterns and for punishing its victims.
The principal
recommendations of the US State Department:
·
Eliminate "binding" and other
restrictions on the ability of foreign caregivers to freely change employers
within sectors
·
Strengthen victim identification of migrants
arriving from Sinai, and accord those trafficking victims full protections and
medical treatment
·
Cease practice of immediately returning migrants
back to Egypt ("hot returns") without determining if they were
trafficking victims in the Sinai.
·
And significantly increase prosecutions,
convictions, and punishment of labor trafficking offenders (including
"employers") and offenses
Israeli
NGO’s: “The findings of the report confirm our claims: that the arrangements
which forbid migrant workers from changing employers create fertile ground for
human trafficking and severe exploitation.”
“Instead of
increasing efforts to fight human trafficking, the Knesset decided only a month
ago to pass a law binding foreign caregivers to their employers. This law is
expected to expose vulnerable migrant workers to further exploitation and to
enable even more human trafficking. Israel should adopt the US State
Department’s recommendations and refrain from binding migrant workers to their
employers”, the NGO’s note.
According to
these organizations 14,000 asylum seekers, the
majority from Eritrea, crossed the Sinai desert into Israel in 2010. The
report states that many are abducted for long periods and used as sex
slaves and forced laborers by organized Bedouin groups. Despite this fact,
the NGO’s point out that Israel continues to deport human trafficking victims
to Egypt without prior inspection. Israel’s ‘Hot Returns’ policy is
unacceptable and a violation of the UN Refugee Convention of which it is a
signatory. Israel should accept the recommendation of the US State Department
and must stop the ‘Hot Returns’ immediately.
The NGO’s
add: “Victims of human trafficking and labor
trafficking must be given access to Israeli health and social welfare systems.
This would not require any new legislation, but simply the willingness of the
health and welfare ministries.
For more
details:
Dana Shaked,
‘Kav Laoved’, 052-534-9876
Attached: US
State Department TIP Report 2011
Text of
Israel's country narrative in the 2011 TIP Report
--------------------------------
ISRAEL (TIER 2)
--------------------------------
Israel is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Low-skilled workers fromThailand ,
China , Nepal , the Philippines ,
India , Sri Lanka , and, to a lesser extent, Romania , migrate voluntarily and legally to Israel for
temporary contract labor in construction, agriculture, and home health care
provision. Some, however, subsequently face conditions of forced labor,
including through such practices as the unlawful withholding of passports,
restrictions on movement, inability to change or otherwise choose one's
employer, nonpayment of wages, threats, sexual assault, and physical
intimidation. Many labor recruitment agencies in source countries and in Israel require workers to pay recruitment fees
typically ranging from $4,000 to $20,000 - a practice making workers highly
vulnerable to trafficking or debt bondage once working in Israel . One NGO
noted that recruitment fees increased in 2010.
--------------------------------
ISRAEL (TIER 2)
--------------------------------
Israel is a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Low-skilled workers from
According to the Ministry of Interior (MOI), an
increased number of migrants (approximately 14,000) crossed into Israel in 2010
from the Sinai, compared with approximately 5,000 in 2009. Organized
Bedouin groups kept many of these migrants captive in the Sinai; an unknown
number of them were forced into sexual servitude or labor to build homes and
serve as domestic workers. Some women from the former Soviet Union and China are subjected to forced prostitution in Israel , although the number of women affected
has declined since the passage and implementation of Israel 's 2006 anti-trafficking
bill. Chinese sex trafficking victims are forced into prostitution for male
Chinese workers in Israel .
In the past year, the government and the media reported that four South
American women were forced into prostitution. According to an NGO and a media
report, some Israeli women and girls are subjected to forced prostitution in Israel , but the
police could not corroborate these allegations.
The Government of Israel does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so.
Recommendations for Israel: Significantly
increase prosecutions, convictions, and punishment of labor trafficking
offenders (including "employers") and offenses; ensure that labor
trafficking crimes are prosecuted under labor trafficking statutes; ensure
trafficking victims are not penalized for unlawful acts committed as a direct
result of being trafficked, such as immigration violations; continue to
investigate the incidence of Israeli nationals subjected to forced
prostitution; increase the number of labor inspectors and translators in the
agriculture, construction, and homecare sectors, ensuring that they are adequately
trained in identifying trafficking cases; eliminate "binding" and
other restrictions on the ability of foreign workers to freely change employers
within sectors; evaluate employers and recruitment agencies for histories or
indicators of abusive practices before referring abused migrant workers to them
for new employment; strengthen victim identification of migrants arriving from
Sinai, and accord those trafficking victims full protections and medical
treatment; enforce the prohibition to charge brokerage fees beyond the maximum
amount allowed by Israeli law; and cease practice of immediately returning
migrants back to Egypt ("hot returns") without determining if they
were trafficking victims in the Sinai.
Prosecution
The Government of Israel sustained its strong law enforcement progress against sex trafficking during the reporting period; it also made initial progress against labor trafficking, seen through the first prosecution under a labor trafficking statute involving a migrant worker.
NGOs continued to assert that the government
focused on prosecutions of related offenses - which allow for smaller
punishments - rather than the prosecutions of trafficking crimes. Police did
not uncover cases where Israeli women were forced into prostitution during the
reporting period. NGOs continued to report that the majority of alleged labor
trafficking complaints were launched by NGOs, as opposed to by the government,
and they also noted that there was insufficient funding and staffing for police
enforcement, particularly in the field. The SAAR
unit - which was established in 2009 to specialize in cases involving foreign
workers, and includes a trafficking unit - confirmed that it relied largely on
information from NGOs to investigate instances of
alleged labor trafficking. The government continued to provide numerous classes, workshops, and seminars to train law enforcement officers, judicial officials, labor inspectors, and others on trafficking. For instance, theInstitute of Legal Training for
Attorneys and Advisors of the Ministry of Justice conducted a seminar on trafficking for state prosecutors, judges, and lawyers.
alleged labor trafficking. The government continued to provide numerous classes, workshops, and seminars to train law enforcement officers, judicial officials, labor inspectors, and others on trafficking. For instance, the
Attorneys and Advisors of the Ministry of Justice conducted a seminar on trafficking for state prosecutors, judges, and lawyers.
Protection
The Government of Israel continued to improve its protection of trafficking victims over the reporting period, although it lacked effective procedures to identify victims of labor trafficking, including migrant workers and migrants who entered from the Sinai. As a result, some unidentified victims were penalized for offenses or violations committed as part of their being trafficked. The government has a formal system of proactively identifying foreign sex trafficking victims among high-risk persons with whom they come in contact. In the reporting period, police did not identify any children or Israeli women forced into prostitution. During the reporting period, the government completed a study which, among other things, examined claims of internal sex trafficking. According to an NGO,
The
government continued to run its 35-bed Maagan shelter for foreign female
trafficking victims and the 35-bed Atlas shelter for foreign male trafficking
victims, both of which were open and did not detain victims involuntarily. NGOs
and international organizations claim that these shelters are insufficient to
treat the scale of trafficking victims in Israel . The government referred 15
women to the Maagan shelter and 63 men to the Atlas shelter in 2010. As of
December 2010, 20 women, 13 men, and six children were housed in the shelters.
The shelter staff maintained contact with trafficking victims after they had
left the shelter to assist them with long-term re-integration into Israeli
society. The government continued to fund and supervise the shelters and its
legal and medical services, allocating approximately $1.4 million in 2010 to
fund an NGO's operation of the Atlas and Maagan facilities. While these two
shelters offer some job training, they were not geared for long-term treatment
beyond one year. The Legal Aid Branch of the Ministry of Justice continued to
enable victims to obtain restitution and provided representation to all victims
free of charge. In cases handled by the Branch, however, traffickers were given
lesser penalties than if they were sentenced in criminal proceedings. The
government encouraged victims to assist in the investigation and prosecution of
trafficking.
The MOI did
not perform sufficient checks on referred employers and had sent some migrant
workers, who had already experienced abuses in Israel , to work for other abusive
employers - sometimes without their consent. Government officials noted that
there were several allegations against particular police officers about
mistreatment and abuse of foreign workers, some of whom may have been
trafficking victims. During the year, the government issued several temporary
B1 visas - unrestricted work visas - to trafficking victims, not contingent on
their cooperation with law enforcement officials. While the government insisted
that all requests for such B1 visas be approved by the Ministry of Interior, an
NGO noted that some trafficking victims assisted in shelters during the
reporting period - including those who entered via the Sinai - were not granted
those visas. The government acknowledged the problem that no trafficking
victims who entered via the Sinai received B1 visas, and officials began
discussing how to rectify the situation.
NGOs and international organizations were critical
of Israeli efforts to identify and protect trafficking victims among the
migrants and refugees who entered via the Sinai, as well as the government's
continued practice of "hot returns" of asylum seekers back to Egypt without
attempting to identify trafficking victims among them. According to
international organizations and NGOs, immigration officials pressured some
trafficking victims with disputed nationalities not to claim citizenship of Sudan or Eritrea , which would accord
protection from deportation. As a result, these trafficking victims were not
offered protection, including shelter and B1 visas. In August 2010, the
Humanitarian Committee of the Ministry of Interior ruled that a sex trafficking
victim was permitted to receive an A5 temporary residence visa for two years,
after which period she could enter into the process to become a permanent
resident, due to the special circumstances of her case - she was trafficked at
the age of 15 by her father in 2001.
Prevention
The Israeli government made sustained progress in preventing trafficking in persons over the reporting period. In December 2010, the government held its third annual ceremony to present awards to individuals or organizations that made a significant contribution against human trafficking. The Knesset Subcommittee on Trafficking in Women met often during the reporting period, including via public hearings, to discuss ways to enhance governmental efforts to combat human trafficking. Inter-agency coordination on human trafficking was generally well-coordinated. The government opened several investigations and prosecutions, and obtained three convictions with sentences ranging from 15 to 50 months' imprisonment, for illegal extraction of recruitment fees from foreign workers. The government revoked the license of one recruitment agency due to illegal fees taken from migrant workers recruited abroad. NGOs continued to criticize the lack of mobility of foreign workers within sectors and raised concerns over amendments to the Law of Entry passed in the Knesset in May 2011 that further bind foreign workers to sectors, employers, and geographic regions. NGOs assert that the binding of migrant workers creates vulnerability to human trafficking. As a continuation of last year's efforts, the country's national coordinator for human trafficking posted an annual summary of the Israeli government's anti-trafficking efforts on the Internet. As in prior years, the Knesset held a meeting to discuss the 2010 TIP Report for