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A law requiring asylum seekers to deposit part of their salary into an escrow account will only worsen their poverty – and thus the situation in neighborhoods like Tel Aviv where many of them live. 39, said Judge Isaac Amit on Tuesday.
"It is clear that they are poorer, things are worse for them," said Amit at a hearing on a petition against the law filed by human rights groups. "And the poorer they are, the worse the situation in these neighborhoods, if you are looking for a causal connection, then the worst things are for the surrounding population."
The President of the Supreme Court, Esther Hayut, seemed to agree, asking, "Does not the harm outweigh the benefits?"
Judge Uzi Vogelman also agreed. In the cost-benefit badysis, he said: "the cost is not negligible; we could even say that it is dramatic. And the benefit is not clear. "
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The law requires asylum seekers to deposit 20% of their wages in an escrow account. They are allowed to collect this money only when they leave the country.
The government attorney, Shosh Shmueli, argued that if the law actually reduces their net pay, most asylum seekers are not about to be hungry.
But Assaf 's aid group for refugees and asylum – seekers said that since the law came into force, the number of claimants in the country has increased. asylum has increased by 35% and the number of requests for food parcels has increased by 33%.
Asylum seekers reported that their children were going to school, that they had stopped buying health insurance for their children and that they were moreover more often forced to work in exploitative conditions, especially women forced into prostitution.
In addition, 86% of the more than 1,300 asylum seekers who sought help from Assaf said they feared losing their home. As a result, asylum seekers began living in much more congested conditions, with many families living in one room so they could sublet the other rooms in the apartment.
The state was not able to prove to the court that the law had the effect of encouraging asylum seekers to leave the country. Most of them have nowhere to go, so the number of people leaving remains low.
The state also admitted that employers sometimes deducted the 20% but did not deposit them into the escrow account, which means that they were stealing them basically from the asylum seekers. When Hayut asked how the state treats this problem, Shmueli actually admitted that he has no solution.
"The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs takes care of this," she said. "This requires an application."
Hayut, clearly not convinced, insisted on the question. "We are talking about millions" of shekels, she said. "How do you make sure the money gets where it is supposed to go?" Shmueli repeated: "It is the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Affairs."
"This arrangement claims to be a government arrangement," said Hayut, "but it's all about whether or not the employer transfers the money." Maybe there should have been a guarantee government to ensure the execution of the provision.If otherwise, the damage is twofold – they took it [the asylum seeker] now, but it will not get it later. "
Shmueli replied that these are cases of "employers who stole", to which Hayut replied: "Okay, so who will run after the employer?"
Shmueli then stated that asylum seekers were cautioned to check their accounts, which exasperated Judge Neal Hendel. "It's a weak population," he said. "Tell me, do you want to rectify the situation, or is it the problem of the infiltrator?"
Shmueli responded that the problem must be solved, but the fact that employers steal asylum seekers does not make the law unconstitutional; it simply means that criminal complaints must be filed against employers.
The petitioning organizations argued that asylum seekers are systematically pushed below the poverty line in an effort to let off steam, and accused the law of disproportionately violating their rights.
They also noted that the law has no chance of achieving its stated purpose of encouraging asylum seekers to leave, because asylum seekers know that money has probably never been deposited and is therefore unrecoverable. have nowhere to go.
The petition was filed by Assaf, Kav La & # 39; oved, the hotline for refugees and migrants, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the African Center for Refugee Development and Doctors for human rights.
In a joint statement issued Tuesday, they said: "It is inconceivable that for populist reasons, the state provide a" prompt "" voluntary "departure whose essence is the theft of Money from people who are hungry for bread, to offer an orderly plan like the one with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which was acceptable and beneficial to all parties. "
Under this agreement, about half of asylum seekers would have been welcomed by Western countries, and Israel would have absorbed the rest.
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