Sunday, August 19, 2018

African migrants reel as Israeli law cuts into salaries

Illegal migrants start to feel the bite of a law passed last year that requires their employers to hand over 20% of their salaries to the state, which promises to give it to the migrants once they leave. Illegal African migrants in Israel have faced since last year a de facto 20% salary cut that has driven them further into poverty, as part of the country's policy to persuade them to leave. Israel's roughly 35,000 illegal African migrants and the groups that support them say the recent law — in which Israel withholds the money from their paychecks every month and returns it only if they leave the country — is yet another attempt by an anti-migrant government to force them out. "I feel that they started the 'deposit law' to make our life miserable," said Salamwit Willedo, a migrant from Eritrea who came to Israel in 2010 via its once-porous border. "We suffer for eight years here. If I had a country, why am I living here?" The Africans, mainly from war-torn Sudan and dictatorial Eritrea, began arriving in Israel in 2005 through its border with Egypt after Egyptian forces violently quashed a refugee demonstration and word spread of safety and job opportunities in Israel. Tens of thousands crossed the desert border, often after enduring dangerous journeys, before Israel completed a barrier in 2012 that stopped the influx. Since then, Israel has wrestled with how to cope with those already in the country. Many took up menial jobs in hotels and restaurants, and thousands settled in southern Tel Aviv, where Israeli residents began complaining of rising crime. While the migrants say that they are refugees fleeing conflict or persecution, Israel views them as job-seekers who threaten the Jewish character of the state. Israel has gone from detaining them in remote desert prisons to purportedly reaching a deal with a third country, believed to be Rwanda, to have them deported there. In April 2018, Israel reached an agreement with the United Nations to have many, but not all, of the migrants resettled in Western countries, with others allowed to stay in Israel. But the government quickly scrapped the deal after an outcry by hard-line politicians and residents of the hardscrabble areas where many of the migrants live. The measures have kept the migrants living in limbo. The overwhelming majority have not been granted asylum. Israel doesn't hide its intentions behind the "deposit law," which according to the Interior Ministry, is meant to make Israel a less attractive option for migrants. The law requires migrants' employers to hand over 20% of their salaries to the state, which says it keeps the money until the migrants leave, at which point they can reclaim the cash. Unlike a tax, the withholding doesn't grant the migrants any additional social services, to which their access is already limited. Employers are also tasked with storing an additional 16% of migrant's salaries toward a pension fund, making this social benefit inaccessible until asylum seekers choose to leave Israel. Employers who hire migrants must also pay an additional tax, implemented to encourage employment of Israeli citizens over foreigners, which makes finding work an even greater challenge for the migrants. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad said that the state is currently holding nearly $40 million in the "deposit accounts" of more than 13,000 migrants. Of the thousands who have left Israel voluntarily, 400 have withdrawn their money, she said. However, the law is being challenged in the country's Supreme Court, and many migrants view it as another attempt by the Israeli government to compel them to leave the country voluntarily. Under international law, Israel cannot legally deport asylum seekers. "Always we are living under threat and uncertainty," said Ghebrehiwot Tekle, an Eritrean who has lived in Israel since 2006 and works as a translator for an aid group. "Every year there will be a new law that can make our life hard." A year after the law's implementation, the 20% salary reduction has been deeply felt by Tel Aviv's community of asylum seekers. According to accounts from various advocacy groups and asylum seekers, the impact ranges from people switching to black market jobs that pay them in cash to more women entering prostitution. Families are also being forced to move into smaller apartments, choosing to place their children with uncertified, often unsafe baby-sitters, and giving up on paying for their children's health insurance. ASSAF, an Israeli aid group for migrants, has tracked the law's effects since it was enacted. It said that requests to the group for food assistance by migrants have increased by a third over the past year. Inquiries regarding job loss increased by more than half and there was a more than 80% increase in migrants registering concern over homelessness. "They used to be poor before as well. Now they are more poor," said Sigal Rozen, public policy director of the Israeli aid organization Hotline for Refugees and Migrants. Willedo, the Eritrean migrant in Israel since 2010, said that her family has tried to reduce their cost of living because of the deposit law, but it's difficult given that most of their income is dedicated to paying rent. Instead, Willedo said that they try to make up the difference by skimping on many of her children's expenses, such as health insurance, diapers and formula.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

> African migrants and the groups that support them say the recent law — in which Israel withholds the money from their paychecks every month and returns it only if they leave the country — is yet another attempt by an anti-migrant government to force them out.

What? Really? No way! How could they even imagine such a thing?

Anonymous said...

WTF is wrong with all these Black idiots thinking they can go wherever they want and steal jobs from the host countries citizens! Just like the problem in the US and Europe. All these sub-humans need to go back where they came from and fight to make their country better.

Atwood said...

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Mad celt said...

Strange, ain't it? No one wants the African anywhere but inside his own podunk nation.