Discussion: a proposal on the amendments regarding foreign workers and the conditions in which a worker who is also an illegal migrant is eligible to receive deposit funds before leaving Israel, not for the purpose of temporarily staying away, 2018. 15 May 2018
In May 2018 discussions were held as part of the effort to ease the provisions of the Deposit Law, including an exemption for women, a change that would empty the law of content to the point where it is no longer effective. During these discussions, Anat Berman, a representative of the IIPC, presented the center’s position:
“The Deposit Law we initiated by the IIPC is the most effective, most significant and almost the only instrument the government has at this moment. The exemption in fact neuters this law. The exempted population, women and children, is population that for all intents and purposes and according to all research and legal information at our disposal can return to Eritrea safely. They are not forced to join the army, are not defectors and can return to Eritrea without facing any danger. We see no point in this exemption. Beyond this, women’s groups, including organizations serving Eritrean women, wrote that in the situation created following this exemption – and this is a quote – there is a lot of pressure on young Eritrean women to get married and become pregnant in order to grant their spouses the exemption and to remain a couple even when they suffer domestic abuse. This is the result of the exemption of women and children from the Deposit Law. Therefore we recommend to conduct an income test where a threshold would be determined, and only the people not meeting the threshold should be exempted from the law. There is no reason that other women, who earn more than the threshold, should be exempted.”
A clip of the discussion
Discussion: Proposal on amendments regarding foreign workers and cases where a foreign worker who is also an illegal alien is eligible to receive deposit funds before the date of leaving Israel, not for the purpose of temporarily staying away, 2018. 27 June 2018.
As part of ongoing discussion to ease provisions of the Deposit Law and in order to exempt women and children from it, Jonathan Jacubowicz from the IIPC told members of the committee that there is overreaching agreement in all reports by foreign governments, including human rights NGOs, that women and children can return to Eritrea, and it is this population of all others that they want to exempt. The message here is that Israel accepts any person who decides to force themselves upon it only because they want to establish a family here.
