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Last update - 01:40 27/08/2001
NGO to protest Israel's treatment of foreign workers at Durban conference
By Ruth Sinai

A delegation from Kav LeOved, a non-profit association that promotes the rights of foreign workers, left Israel yesterday to attend the World Conference Against Racism in Durban. The organization plans to sharply criticize Israel's treatment of foreign workers at the WCAR.

Meanwhile, 270 Chinese construction workers employed by Solel Boneh are protesting withholding of their salaries and confiscation of their passports at Kav LeOved's Tel Aviv offices. Some of the Chinese employees are on strike.

The Chinese construction workers have filed a complaint with the police, alleging that their passports were taken from them in violation of the law. They also filed a complaint with the Labor Ministry, alleging that they had not received their salaries.

The Chinese workers said that they had paid $1,500 in China to come work in Israel. When they arrived, representatives of the Chinese company took their passports away from them so that they would not be able to access funds Solel Boneh had deposited in their bank accounts. They said that once a month a representative of the Chinese company would accompany them to the bank and give them their passports so they could draw money. But, they claimed, the representative would leave them with only $100 and then take their passports back.

Kav LeOved is demanding that Solel Boneh ensures that the Chinese company through which it employs construction workers adhere to Israeli law and allow the workers full access to their wages.

"Israel's treatment of foreign workers is humiliating," said Hannah Zohar, the director of Kav LeOved. Just because they are not Israeli citizens they are exploited and their basic human needs are ignored, she added.

Treatment of foreign labor will be one of the main themes of the Durban conference. Kav Leoved plans to distribute material showing how Israel allegedly violates the international convention on foreign workers to which it is party
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