Israel ranks among third world countries for human trafficking

(By Brooke Anderson)

Israel ranks alongside Botswana, Cambodia and Sri Lanka for being “a destination country for men and women subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking,” according to the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons report. The country, which tends to consider itself more modern and democratic than its neighbors, is criticized in the report for failing to do an adequate job in protecting victims of human trafficking. Low and unskilled workers from Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa regularly migrate to Israel to work in construction, agriculture and healthcare.

But some “subsequently face conditions of forced labor, including through such practices as the unlawful withholding of passports, restrictions on movement, inability to change or otherwise choose one’s employer, nonpayment of wages, threats, sexual assault, and physical intimidation.”And many labor recruitment agencies require workers to pay fees ranging from $4,000 to $20,000, making them vulnerable to debt bondage. One NGO said these fees increased in 2010. In fact, despite some nominal government efforts by Israel in recent years in terms of passing laws to prevent human trafficking, the practice is actually on the rise.

According to the Interior Ministry, an increased number of migrants (approximately 14,000) crossed into Israel in 2010 from the Sinai, compared with approximately 5,000 in 2009, says the State Department report. “The government of Israel does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so,” reported the State Department. The State Department ranked countries into three tiers. Most First World countries ranked in the first tier, while developing countries – including those in the Middle East – were in the second and third tiers.