As a result of the petition submitted by ACRI and the Hotline for Migrant Workers, meetings between individuals who are slated to be deported and are being held at the terminal of Ben Gurion Airport – in some cases for hours – will be able to meet with their attorneys, thereby facilitating their access to the judicial system. These meetings play a critical role in preventing illegal deportations of individuals who are legally residing in the country, and as a means of ensuring additional rights of migrant workers before they are permanently expelled from the country. The petition, which was submitted by ACRI Attorney Michal Pinchuk, was rejected by the Supreme Court in its last hearing, but not before the justices stated in their ruling that the majority of the petitioning organizations’ claims had been accepted by the state.
The petition was submitted in 2004 and called for the revocation of the directive of the Operations Officer of the Immigration Police, which prohibited attorneys from meeting with migrant workers who are slated for expulsion from the country, and are being held in isolated terminals at Ben Gurion Airport. The petitioning organizations further stated that in many cases, individuals who are due to be deported, are brought to the airport hours before their flight (up to 12 hours, sometimes even more), and are prevented from meeting with an attorney during this extended period of time, which contravenes Israeli law and results in the violation of the deportees’ basic rights. This infringement, the petition adds, results in a subsequent violation of the right to access the judicial system, which in turn results in an ever widening cycle of additional rights violations, including the illegal expulsion of individuals who are residing in Israel lawfully.
Following the submission of the petition and the Supreme Court’s intervention, the state presented – about a year ago – a new procedure, which enables meetings between those slated for deportation and their attorneys, a procedure that has been in operation for a trial period while the petition was still pending. Attorney Yonatan Berman from the Hotline for Migrant Workers identified an inherent problem in this procedure, which is that the state does not obligate itself to permitting these meetings in the event that the individual has already undergone the required security checks. Attorney Berman asked that an instruction be included in the new procedure, which will make this meeting obligatory as long as enough time remains to carry out an additional security check before the flight. This procedural amendment is a vital condition for the numerous deportees who are put through security checks hours before their flight is due to take off (sometimes 10-12 hours before), a fact that is liable to undermine their basic right to legal representation, and which is also liable to inhibit access to the courts for migrant workers who are victims of a faulty expulsion process. The Supreme Court, however, accepted the position of the state on this issue, which was presented by Attorney Anar Helman, from the State Attorney’s Office, who claimed that despite the fact that this factor is not affixed to the new procedure, in practice the prospective deportees are not denied access to their attorneys as a result of expedited security checks, and that all requests for such meeting were authorized. Supreme Court Justices: Aharon Barak, Dorit Beinisch, and Eliezer Rivlin, noted in their ruling that if it becomes clear over the next year that problems have arisen in this area, the petitioning organizations will retain the right to re-petition the court.
last updated : 06/03/06
