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Women trafficking to Israel drops sharply

Report compiled by Knesset division reveals no women smuggled into Israel caught since beginning of 2007, but infiltration of asylum seekers grows dramatically

The smuggling of women for prostitution and of drugs from Egypt into Israel has dramatically declined since the IDF has taken over the border nine months ago.

 

However, the infiltration rate of asylum seekers through the southern border has significantly increased over the same period, a new report compiled by the Knesset's Research and Information Center revealed Sunday.

 

The report was drafted ahead of a joint discussion of the Committee on Drug Abuse and the Subcommittee on the Trafficking of Women set to take place Monday.

 

According to the report, since the beginning of 2007, 898 people were smuggled through the border from Sudan, 430 were smuggled from Eritrea, and about 40 of the infiltrators caught were from Georgia, Romania and Turkey.

 

The report stated that no women were caught being smuggled into Israel to serve as prostitutes in the last nine months, but head of the shelter for victims of women trafficking in Israel Ruth Davidovich claimed that some 30 women were currently staying at the shelter, and that most of them were smuggled through the Egyptian border.

 

The committee members are scheduled to discuss the urgent need for a fence to be constructed along the border to stop the infiltrations and smuggling. Other topics on the agenda would be the frequent violent clashes between Israeli security forces and the smugglers, and the need to boost forces on the Jordanian border, which is also exposed to smuggling.

 

The report stressed that despite Israel's substantial efforts, the border remained volatile, with smugglers becoming more sophisticated and using more technologically advanced methods.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.11.07, 21:50
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