A harsh migration policy

Even as the Finance Ministry is drafting a plan to reduce the number of foreign workers in Israel, thousands of migrant laborers are pouring into the country from Africa across the wide-open Egyptian border. This irrationality makes us feel like we lack a government that functions, thinks, manages and cares. This is true in many areas, such as the uncontrolled takeover of state lands by individuals, including criminals. But it is particularly noticeable, in all its severity, in the current influx of thousands of refugees to public parks and shelters in Tel Aviv.

It seems that a policy on the absorption of migrant laborers is being formulated here only after the fact, and that it involves caving in to pressure from lobbyists and color stories in the papers. What is lacking is any consideration of the public welfare. Every ministry adopts a different position, and in the end, they make do with no policy at all. In a situation where it should demonstrate humanity, sensitivity and an open heart, the government is instead demonstrating harshness. The decision to absorb refugees and then abandon them to their fate is inhumane.

Also inhumane is the decision now being finalized by the Bank of Israel and the Finance Ministry for a sharp reduction in the number of work visas alloted to caregivers for the elderly. The idea that Israelis will take the places of Filipinos is ridiculous. Many elderly people who today enjoy round-the-clock care will be left abandoned, isolated and dependent on the kindness of their relatives, who cannot provide them with round-the-clock care.

The 50,000 Filipinos employed in this capacity are not stealing jobs from Israelis, because there are no Israelis willing to devote themselves to such work. Instead of setting a standard under which every person 80 or older who wants round-the-clock care can have it, with no humiliating tests, the government intends to make things harder for such people by slashing the quota of Filipino workers to a fifth of their current number. This is the moment for the Pensioners Party to prove it has a reason to exist.

The migrant laborers and refugees who are coming by the thousands from Africa will apparently be employed under miserable conditions in agriculture, construction and service industries, thereby making a laughingstock of the welcome efforts to supervise the employment of foreign workers at fair wages. These migrants will live in inhuman conditions but will not complain for fear of being deported. Trafficking in cheap labor may already be taking place over the wide-open border with Egypt, far from the state's planning and enforcement agencies. The government must make it harder for most of these people to enter, while also improving the absorption of anyone it decides to allow in as a refugee. Any "middle road" is both stupid and cruel.

It is not clear why an Immigration Authority is being established when immigration policy is irrational and disconnected from Israeli society's true needs. Bureaucratic red tape is becoming typical of this authority even before it is established. From now on, every application to import foreign workers will require an economic opinion from the Industry, Trade and Employment Ministry and approval from the "Agenda Forum" - a joint body consisting of representatives from the treasury, the Prime Minister's Office, the Bank of Israel, the Welfare Ministry and the National Insurance Institute. And as the forms are being passed from office to office, the elderly will suffer from a cruel reduction in the number of Filipino workers, for whom there is no substitute, while thousands of Africans whose entry has not been approved by any forum continue to pour in over the southern border every year.