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WORLD NEWS Thursday 16 augusT 2018

African migrants reel as Israeli law cuts their salaries

By CARON CREIGHTON ly holding nearly $40 million
Associated Press in the "deposit accounts" of
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Afri- more than 13,000 migrants.
can migrants in Israel have Of the thousands who have
been detained, threat- left Israel voluntarily, 400
ened with deportation have withdrawn their mon-
and faced hostility from ey, she said.
lawmakers and residents. However, the law is being
Since last year, they face challenged in the country's
another burden: a de facto Supreme Court, and many
20 percent salary cut that migrants view it as another
has driven them further into attempt by the Israeli gov-
poverty. ernment to compel them
Israel's roughly 35,000 Af- to leave the country volun-
rican migrants and the tarily. Under international
groups that support them law, Israel cannot legally
say the recent law — in deport asylum seekers.
which Israel withholds the "Always we are living under
money from their pay- threat and uncertainty,"
checks every month and said Ghebrehiwot Tekle, an
returns it only if they leave Eritrean who has lived in Is-
the country — is yet anoth- rael since 2006 and works
er attempt by an anti-mi- as a translator for an aid
grant government to force In this Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018 photo, Eritrean migrant Russom Weldu Weldeslasie works at a group. "Every year there
them out. restaurant in Tel Aviv, Israel. will be a new law that can
"I feel that they started the Associated Press make our life hard."
'deposit law' to make our A year after the law's imple-
life miserable," said Salam- where Israeli residents be- The measures have kept already limited. Employers mentation, the 20 percent
wit Willedo, a migrant from gan complaining of rising the migrants living in limbo. are also tasked with storing salary reduction has been
Eritrea who came to Israel crime. The overwhelming major- an additional 16 percent of deeply felt by Tel Aviv's
in 2010. "We suffer for eight While the migrants say they ity have not been granted migrant's salaries toward a community of asylum seek-
years here. If I had a coun- are refugees fleeing con- asylum and they lead a pension fund, making this ers.
try, why am I living here?" flict or persecution, Israel tenuous existence, often at social benefit inaccessible According to accounts
The Africans, mainly from views them as job-seekers the whims of the govern- until asylum seekers choose from various advocacy
war-torn Sudan and dicta- who threaten the Jewish ment. Some say they are to leave Israel. groups and asylum seek-
torial Eritrea, began arriving character of the state. victims of racism. Employers who hire mi- ers, the impact ranges from
in Israel in 2005 through its Israel has gone from de- Israel rejects such accusa- grants must also pay an ad- people switching to black
porous border with Egypt taining them in remote tions but doesn't hide its ditional tax, implemented market jobs that pay them
after Egyptian forces vio- desert prisons to purport- intentions behind the "de- to encourage employment in cash to more women en-
lently quashed a refugee edly reaching a deal with posit law," which accord- of Israeli citizens over for- tering prostitution.
demonstration and word a third country, believed to ing to the Interior Ministry, eigners, which makes find- Families are also being
spread of safety and job be Rwanda, to have them is meant to make Israel a ing work an even greater forced to move into smaller
opportunities in Israel. Tens deported there. less attractive option for mi- challenge for the migrants. apartments, choosing to
of thousands crossed the In April, Israel reached an grants. While Israel doesn't shy place their children with
desert border, often after agreement with the Unit- The law requires migrants' away from the law's goals, uncertified, often unsafe
enduring dangerous jour- ed Nations to have many, employers to hand over a spokeswoman suggested baby-sitters, and giving
neys, before Israel com- but not all, of the migrants 20 percent of their salaries the money serves as a sav- up on paying for their chil-
pleted a barrier in 2012 that resettled in Western coun- to the state, which says it ings account for migrants dren's health insurance.
stopped the influx. tries, with others allowed to keeps the money until the choosing to leave Israel. ASSAF, an Israeli aid group
Since then, Israel has wres- stay in Israel. But the gov- migrants leave, at which Interior Ministry spokes- for migrants, has tracked
tled with how to cope with ernment quickly scrapped point they can reclaim the woman Sabine Haddad the law's effects since it
those already in the coun- the deal after an outcry cash. said the savings provide "a was enacted. It said that
try. Many took up menial by hard-line politicians and Unlike a tax, the withholding proper starting point for the requests to the group for
jobs in hotels and restau- residents of the hardscrab- doesn't grant the migrants beginning of the migrants' food assistance by mi-
rants, and thousands set- ble areas where many of any additional social servic- new lives outside of Israel." grants have increased by a
tled in southern Tel Aviv, the migrants live. es, to which their access is She said the state is current- third over the past year.q