Original source:
Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv to demonstrate against Israel’s ‘revolving-door policy’ on migrant workers.
Monday’s march, organised by the Communist Party of Israel’s Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, or Hadash, targeted some of the country’s largest employment agencies.
Protesters waved red flags and chanted: ‘Foreign workers are not slaves.’
Hadash organiser Noa Levy said: ‘The employment agencies are the ones that benefit from the government’s revolving-door policy.
‘Despite the fact that the law limits them to collecting 3,500 shekels (£550) from workers for service fees, these companies charge between $6,000 (£3,600) and $25,000 (£15,000) from every worker they bring in to the country and rake in 75 per cent of the fee.’
Mr Levy added that ‘most of the workers who are illegal lose their status because of the Immigration Authority’s policies. People lose their legal status because they quit their jobs, are fired, get pregnant or get married.’
More than 20,000 people are expected to be deported by the end of the year as part of a government policy to have all migrant workers out of the country by 2013.
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