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Children in vehicle
Photo: Israel Yosef

Rahat Riddle: How many kids can you pack in a car?

Police officers stop vehicle on routine check only to find 10-passenger car filled with 38 children who come to Israel as illegal workers, return to territories on weekend

Southern Border Guard officers who stopped a car Thursday on a routine check at the Bedouin city of Rahat were surprised to discover the 10-passenger GMC vehicle filled with 39 people - one driver and 38 children from the West Bank village of Yata.

 

Police investigations revealed that the driver was taking the children from the Rahat to the Palestinian territories. Thirty-eight children between the ages of 10 and13 stepped out of the car, one by one.

 

The police said they could not believe their eyes. “It simply didn’t end,” said one of the officers.


Getting out of the car, one by one (Photo: Israel Yosef)

 

These children are believed to enter Israel illegally on a regular basis in order to work in the south and return home on the weekends.

 

The driver, a territory resident himself, was arrested and taken in for questioning by the police. "Truth is much stranger than fiction here,” one of the traffic police officers told Ynet.

 

“We stopped the car for a search because it had looked suspicious due to the darkened windows and shaky wheels. When we opened the vehicle’s back door, we couldn’t believe our eyes,” said the officer.

 

“The benches were taken out of the car and replaced with mats on which they sat the children, one on top of the other.”

 

The officer also said that an investigation conducted by the police officers revealed that the car was not in the driver’s ownership. Moreover, the car was sold in the past for the purpose of dismantling it and selling its parts.

 

The police are trying to clarify how the car arrived in its entirety at the Palestinian territories. The driver and children will be returned to the territories after being questioned, while the main suspect’s driver’s license was revoked on the spot.

 


פרסום ראשון: 07.31.08, 16:36
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