Yishai: 20,000 foreign kids living in Israel illegally

Aid organizations say Interior Ministry released 'inflated figures' on children of foreign workers residing in country

Yael Branovsky |Published: 08.20.10 , 13:45

According to figures released by the Interior Ministry on Friday, 20,000 children of foreign workers are residing in Israel illegally – 6,000 under the age of five, and 14,000 children aged six to 17.

Organizations aiding migrant workers said in response that the new figures were inflated and "part of the Interior Ministry's famous intimidation policy."

Interior Minister Eli Yishai said that the figures strengthened the fact that this was a much wider phenomenon and that it was easy to predict what would happen if more foreign children remained in the country.

"This proves that we are not talking about 400 or 800, but about thousands or even tens of thousands of children," Yishai stated. "This is the reason why I wanted to return all the children to their homelands, in order to convey a message to the world that Israel's immigration policy is not irresponsible."

Earlier this month, the government decided to adopt the conclusions of the intra-ministerial committee on the status of foreign workers' children and to deport 400 children who have failed to meet the criteria set by the government.

Rotem Ilan, chairwoman of the Israeli Children organization, said in response to the new figures that "the interior minister is once again attempting to create fear among the public by inflating numbers. This is a known method used by the Interior Ministry."

Sigal Rosen, director of the Hotline for Migrant Workers, said that the Interior Ministry figures were inflated and likely included children of refugees and children living in Israel under the law of return.

"This number is comprised mostly of children who arrived with immigrants under the law of return, refugees' children and the children of work migrants," she claimed. "A professional committee convened and took numbers from the Education Ministry and infant welfare center and this is the number it agreed on."

Rosen explained that the interior minister was interested in presenting the "inflated" numbers to the public in order to win support for the children's deportation.

"The public is under the impression that if there are only 400 children, they should be left in Israel as a humanitarian gesture," she said. "Yishai believes that if he creates the impression that there are thousands of children, the public will think it is worthwhile to invest in detention and deportation."