Ganei Tal fields
צילום: גדי קבלו
Foreign workers to be evacuated as well
Hundreds of foreign workers were employed in Gush Katif’s greenhouses. On Wednesday, the Inhabitant Administration set to begin evacuating them to a hostel in the southern town of Arad, all expenses paid. Head of the Foreign Workers Enforcement Unit to Ynet: We estimate workers will remain in the hostel for up to four days; then they’ll be assigned a new employer
What will happen to hundreds of foreign workers who were employed in the settlements’ greenhouses and are now unemployed? The Foreign Workers Enforcement Unit promised that all workers who are lawfully employed would be able to continue working in Israel after the Gaza disengagement as long as their length of stay has not exceeded the legal maximum of five years.
It was brought to Ynet’s attention that starting Wednesday, the Population Administration will begin a complex logistical operation of absorbing hundreds of foreign workers evacuated from Gush Katif and re-assigning them jobs in Israel.
Foreign workers will be transported along with all those remaining in the area in buses scheduled to depart Wednesday morning.
Official data show that in the Gaza Strip approximately 600 foreign workers have job permits and another 80 to 150 workers are there illegally. Yossi Edelstein, head of Foreign Workers Enforcement Unit said that each worker who was employed in agriculture – regardless of legal status and work permit – will be assigned a new position in the field “as long as their stay here did not exceed the maximum of five years allotted by law.”
Inhabitant administration officials emphasized that this is the first stage of a redeployment plan aimed at assisting the evacuated settlers. “We would like to make the transition as easy as possible for the evacuated residents.”
