The Plight of Orphaned or Abandoned Migrant Children
In June the government decided to grant official status to the children of migrant workers who comply with certain criteria. However, only a minority of children and their families will benefit from the arrangement; the vast majority will continue to be defined as illegal residents by the criteria which are extremely narrow and include a requirement that the individual requesting official status be born in Israel. Thus, while the 120 families who meet the terms of the stated criteria await the response to their requests for residency, hundreds of other children who came to Israel at a young age and are Israelis in every sense, are being subjected to the government’s first move in its plan to detain and deport them. In the last few weeks, the fact that the Immigration Police has begun preparations for the establishment of detention centers for migrant children and their families, to facilitate their expulsion from Israel, has been made public.
It is important to note that even before the current government decision, the state did not refrain from detaining minors. Migrant minors residing in Israel with their families have up to now been exempt from detention; however, this is not the case for orphaned children or children who have been abandoned by their parents. These minors are detained in accordance with the Ministry of the Interior`s policy. They are held in the “Zohar” detention facility, which has not been adapted to meet the needs of minors being held for an extended period of time – there are no social or psychological services, and no educational framework. They are locked up in their cells during daytime hours, except for two 45-minute exercise periods in an asphalt court. When the minors are deported, the state makes no attempt to coordinate the expulsion with representatives of the minor’s country of origin, or to find out who will take responsibility for them upon their arrival.
Israeli state authorities shirk their responsibilities for these abandoned children. Senior social worker, Miriam Fever, refused to visit the Zohar facility to inspect the children’s conditions with the absurd claim that they are “criminals” who consciously trample on Israel’s immigration laws. Although she did agree to investigate the circumstances of migrant children who had been abandoned but were not in detention, she made clear that if she reaches the conclusion that they are “minors in need”, they will be detained in the Zohar facility. The fact that this is the attitude of the person who is responsible for the welfare and security of Israeli children, should not only cause migrant parents to lose sleep, but also parents of Israeli children.
This lack of concern for the children of migrant workers has not even escaped the court system. A district court judge recently ruled that there is no legal obstacle to holding minors in the Immigration Police`s detention facilities, even though the facilities are unsuitable for their needs, because the minors` legal position according to the law is the same as that of adults. Two other district court judges ruled that there are no grounds for stopping the detention and deportation of orphaned minors whose expulsion has not been coordinated with their country of origin, and upon whose behalf no effort has been made to ensure their wellbeing after their arrival in the country.
Following the government’s decision, it will soon be the turn of the minors residing in Israel with their families. The removal of this final obstacle did not arouse any sense of surprise among those who have followed the enthusiasm of state agencies such as: the Ministry of the Interior, the Immigration Police, and the district attorney’s office in their work to detain and expel any migrant residing in Israel.
The Immigration Police, according to recent public notices, has already commissioned a tender for the conversion of hostels into detention centers to hold minors and their families. Like currently existing centers, which are referred to by the sanitized epithet “custodial facilities”, it is likely that they will also be presented as institutions within which the minors are provided with “all the required conditions”. However, a closer examination will reveal that the detention centers are denying the minors their liberty even though they have committed no crime.
The demonization of migrant workers, which has been encouraged by the government for a few years already, blinkers the general public, and prevents them from seeing that the red line was crossed a long time ago, even before state authorities began the process of detaining children and their families.
In January 2002 the world was shocked after more than a hundred Afghan detainees, including a large number of children, who were detained in family detention centers in Woomera in Australia, sewed their lips together to protest against their detention. One can only hope that in Israel the public and state authorities will come to their senses before any such desperate acts are carried out.
last updated : 03/08/05
