Israel High Court puts restraining order on foreign worker deportations

The High Court of Justice last week ordered the state to refrain from deporting some 200 African foreign workers living in Israel without visas, while the court evaluates their request to stay here another year and then leave permanently on their own accord. Justice Elyakim Rubinstein, who extended an existing injunction on the deportation of the 200 Africans, said the court would schedule a session to examine the workers' request before April 5.

The workers' request is outlined in a 16-page document submitted to the court, entitled "the project for the willful relocation of veteran Africans and their families."

It details an action plan proposed by the leaders of the African community, who are asking that the members of their community receive permission to stay in Israel for another 12 months during which they would prepare to leave. The petitioners also request that during that period the workers be allowed to leave Israel and reenter as they make preparations to move to European or other Western countries.

The program, authored by the African Workers Union - a south Tel Aviv-based NGO founded in the early 1990s which currently represents most African workers in Israel - proposes a mechanism to increase the chances that the 200 petitioners actually leave after the one-year deadline.

About 3,500-4,000 African workers remain, according to the union, a third of which are in Israel legally. Most hail from Nigeria, Ghana, Congo or Sierra Leone.

Measures to ensure departure include depositing a financial guarantee of a few thousand shekels, which would go to the state if the migrant fails to leave within a year.

"This way, in case the depositor violates the agreement, the state already has the money to fly him out of the country when he is caught," said Swaray Alusine, the Sierra Leone-born founder of the African Workers Union. "We are not asking to stay; we are asking to leave in dignity."

Fred Uwa from Nigeria, who was elected last year to head the African Workers Union, said his organization would launch in the coming days a public campaign to promote the proposal, including demonstrations leading up to Passover under the banner "let our people go in dignity."

"Let's suppose not everyone leaves after the one-year period," one African community leader said at a meeting on the proposal on Monday in South Tel Aviv. "So what? There will still be people leaving in orderly fashion which gives them a chance to build a new home for themselves - and reduces costs to the state, which will otherwise have to chase these people around to deport them."

The African petitioners - who are currently subject to frequent deportation raids - are also offering to register with the Interior Ministry, provide current addresses and fingerprints "to remove the fear of identity swaps," as their plan states. The interior ministry's Oz Unit for foreign workers said it will intensify raids during the Passover holidays (see box).

Legalizing the stay of African workers for the next 12 months would allow them to receive insurance, thereby saving on state expenditure for healthcare for illegal residents, the proposal also states.

"There is also a social message going out to all foreign workers, not just Africans," Swaray Alusine said. "It will show that even veteran foreign workers have decided on their own accord to leave. It will be a message to the community that there is no future here."

Elsewhere, perhaps

The Africans presented their plan last month to MK Nitzan Horovitz of Meretz, who said he would consider promoting it in Knesset as a bill.

The African workers are interested in leaving Israel for their own reasons, according to the union's proposal. "All group members are looking for a better future for themselves and their children and all prefer other countries, in Europe and America, over Israel because of the language barrier, a more accommodating immigration policy in these countries and family already there to help with absorption," it read.

The union explained that migrants have not left because of the "harsh reality of staying illegally here, avoiding deportation and trying to survive." This, according to Swaray Alusine, has prevented those who seek to leave from being able to work toward finding another place.