Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
is expected to reach a decision Sunday in the case of the foreign workers' children, and apparently will not call for their deportation.
It is still unclear whether the decision will be made by the ministers involved in the case, or by the prime minister and his advisors only.
At this time, it is also unclear when the final decision will be made regarding the childrens' future status in Israel.
The prime minister's previous decision to postpone the deportation of foreign workers' children will expire midnight on Saturday, three months after it was made, and following a series of protests by the children and several social organizations that support their cause.
The issue was presented to the prime minister after deliberations between ministers proved futile, and did not come to a solution.
Foreign workers' children at play (Photo: Ofer Amram)
The prime minister faces a larger issue than the fate of 1,200 children who are facing deportation – that of the foreign workers themselves, who currently number 430,000, over 5% of Israel's population.
Netanyahu views are similar to those held by Interior Minister Eli Yishai and other ministers, who wish to find a permanent solution to the issue of foreign workers in Israel while curbing the phenomenon, before it causes irreversible damage to israel's socio-economic structure.
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Based on the proposed solution, which has yet to be finalized, the 1,200 children in question will not be deported, and their cases will be handled individually by welfare and legal agents, as well as local authorities.
Ahead of the decision, Interior Minister Eli Yishai lashed out at illegal foreign workers during a Channel 2 TV interview: " We will have, based on what the internal security minister said in the last discussion, hundreds of thousands of foreign workers coming in here with disease like hepatitis, tuberculosis, AIDS, drugs," said the minister.
Yishai's office is awaiting the prime minister's decision, and stressed that it will continue employing Oz unit enforcement measures, although no special actions will be taken against the children until a decision is made.
Meanwhile, Minister of Minority Affairs Avishay Braverman urged PM Netanyahu to come to a decision, urging him to grant the children Israeli citizenship.
"The damage these children suffered following the postponement of a decision in their case is too heavy to bear.
"The prime minister must prevent further delay, make the right decision and give the foreign workers' children citizenship," said the minister.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Yaalon held a discussion earlier this week, in which several topics relating to the foreign workers were discussed; however the ministers preferred not to make a final decision on
the issue,
Yael Branovsky contributed to this report
_a.jpg "Photo: Yaron Brener")
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