Trapped by debt: migrant workers in Israel unable to escape conflict
This article is more than 3 months oldForeign workers in Israel often have to pay exorbitant ‘placement fees’ to secure work in the country, which has left many of them with too much debt to leave
Migrant workers in Israel have said that they are unable to return home to their families after the 7 October attacks as they are trapped in debt from the high recruitment fees they had to pay for their jobs.
It is understood that at least 50 migrant workers died in Israel during the attacks by the Hamas militant group; 30 Thai nationals, four Filipinos and 10 Nepalis are so far known to have been killed, according to government and media reports. There are reportedly more than 100,000 foreign workers in Israel, with the majority working as caregivers, as well as in agriculture and construction.
The Guardian spoke to several migrant workers about their desire to return home and their fears of remaining in Israel after they were caught up in the attacks, which left more than 1,300 people dead.
Yet all said they were unable to because of the high recruitment fees – sometimes tens of thousands of dollars – they were made to pay by recruitment agencies before travelling to work in Israel.
One worker from the Philippines described how she was forced to hide in a bomb shelter with an 88-year-old man she was caring for, while Hamas militants tried to break the lock and force entry.
Diana*, 33, had been working in Israel at Be’eri kibbutz, three miles from Gaza, when it was razed to the ground early in the morning on 7 October. Although Diana survived the attack, some of her colleagues were killed.
“It was so scary. It felt like these were my last moments of being alive,” Diana said.
Diana and her employer hid without food or water for 18 hours until the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) came to rescue them at 2am. Despite being traumatised by her ordeal, Diana said she was unable to agree to her family’s appeals for her to return home.
“We don’t have a house yet; we plan to build one for ourselves,” she said. “It will take another three years of working here.”
The International Labour Organization (ILO) mandates that employers should pay any financial fees attached to recruiting migrant workers from abroad. However, Israel makes workers pay these “placement fees” themselves, a practice that has drawn criticism from human rights experts.
The high demand among migrant workers for jobs in Israel, which are often much better paid than comparable jobs in other countries in the region, also leads to recruitment agencies in workers’ home countries inflating the fees they charge for securing work for people often desperate to provide for their families.
A shortage of workers in Israel’s healthcare and agriculture sectors and the high debts people can incur when travelling to work in the country can lead to migrant workers being exploited and forced to work long hours without breaks.
Saket*, a 29-year-old caregiver from India, paid a recruiter more than $20,000 (£16,000) for his job last year, and had to take out a loan to pay for it. Like the Philippines, India is also arranging repatriation flights for its citizens but Saket said this was not an option for him.
“We go insane to get these jobs because of the good salary,” he said. Saket is paid $1,500 a month, about three times what he would earn in Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
“The recruitment fees for Israel are 10 times more than people pay to recruitment agencies to go to the Gulf. That’s why people don’t come here much. If you have money, you come to Israel; if you don’t, you cannot.”
Nicholas McGeehan, the co-founding director of FairSquare Projects, a London-based human rights NGO, said that migrant workers are an invisible and forgotten part of the Israeli population who must also be protected by the government.
“Previously, migrant farm workers have been forced to continue working through rocket attacks from Gaza,” he said. “There is a disproportionate risk to farm workers who are forced to work while attacks are ongoing.
“The fact that so many migrant workers were caught up in the massacres of 7 October would hopefully remind the Israeli population that there are other minorities within their population that deserve protection and concern,” he added.
* names changed
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