Tabled by: Government
The so-called “Slavery Law” is an amendment to the Israel Entry Law, which concerns limitations on work permits given to migrant workers residing in Israel. The proposal seeks to restore the measure by which migrant workers are bound to a single employer, an arrangement deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, which went so far as to call it “a modern form of slavery.” The proposed amendment was initially added as a line item in the Economic Arrangements Law, but was separated from that legislation following the legal opinion of the Knesset’s legal adviser.
The “Slavery Law” severely harms fundamental human rights of approximately 55,000 migrant workers in the nursing professions in Israel, the majority of which are women. The law enables the Minister of Interior to restrict the number of times a migrant caregiver can change employers, to limit workers to specific geographical areas, and to confine them to specific subsections of the nursing services. The amendment constitutes an attempt to circumvent the High Court of Justice and to restore an earlier “binding arrangement” of migrant workers to their employers, which the High Court has already criticized in 2006 for “creating a modern form of slavery” following a petition by five human rights organizations.
It should be further stressed that this law mainly targets women, since the majority of migrant caregivers in Israel are women. As vulnerable as the entire community of migrant workers is, the women within it are even more so, and this law will further aggravate their situation – including the possibility of binding a migrant worker to an abusive employer.
ACRI and other organizations have worked together and generated some public discussion regarding this pending bill – having initiated a powerful letter by Israeli jurists, followed by a support letter by American-Jewish counterparts and a subsequent letter from Israeli public opinion leaders – all condemning the bill for severely violating basic human rights, and urging decision-makers to stop it.
29 March 2011: Approved for second-third readings by the Committee on Internal Affairs
16 May 2011: Bill passed second-third readings
Status: Bill has been enacted as a law.
