Court to rule on deporting 'new mother' workers
By Relly Sa'ar, 12/13/05

Five human rights groups on Tuesday petitioned the High Court of Justice to overturn a policy of expelling female foreign workers in Israel legally but who have recently given birth.

According to the Population Registry's "procedure to deal with pregnant foreign workers," female foreign workers who are permitted to work in Israel are nonetheless required to leave the country within three months of giving birth.

The petition asks the court to allow legal foreign workers who give birth in Israeli territory to complete their stay in the country - a maximum period of five years and three months - and have her child with her for the duration of her time in Israel.

Under the previous policy, female foreign workers who were in Israel legally, who had a regular employer and who were six or more months pregnant could request a tourist visa should they have to stop work for any reason. The visa would be valid until the child reached three months of age.

During this period the Interior Ministry would investigate whether the new mother had immediate family in Israel, such as parents, a partner or other children, a move designed to prevent settlement of foreign families in the country.

If the Population Registry was convinced that the woman was indeed alone, she was allowed to renew her work permit, on condition that the child was sent out of the country at the age of three months.

This policy, however, was strongly criticized as inhumane by a Knesset panel on foreign workers.

"What would we say if somewhere in the world a Jewish mother was told that she had to send her child to another country, or she herself could face being sent away from the place she had come to earn a living? Would we not say it was anti-Semitism?" the Knesset members asked Population Registry chief Sassi Katzir.

As a result of this criticism, the Registry changed its policy to the current terms, which require migrant workers who give birth to leave Israeli territory along with the child once he or she has reached the age of three months.

The petition, which was brought forward as a joint effort by Kav La'oved, the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, Na'amat and the Hotline for Migrant Workers, lambastes Israel for violating the basic civil rights of foreign women workers.

"The State of Israel is pretending to draft a contract with foreign worker women, according to which giving birth essentially means an immediate and final annulment of her work permit," the petition says. The petition also says the Interior Ministry's policy "contradicts the laws protecting women workers, the law of equal opportunity in the workplace and the Basic Law of equality between the sexes, which prohibit firing women who are pregnant or who have just given birth."

According to the petition, the policy opposes the Basic Law guaranteeing a person's right to respect and liberty. "The improved regulation deals a critical blow to right of immigrant women to have children and to their right to be respected."

The petition also argues that deporting the women before the end of their 63-month work permit period would cause them extensive economic damage. Immigrant workers are usually forced to pay sums of thousands of dollars to mediators to receive legal work permits before coming to Israel. If forced to end their work period early, the petition says, these women would be unable to cover those costs and would no longer be able to economically support their families.