"You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" - Exodus 22:20
March 31, 2002
Trafficking in Women in Israel March 2001 - February 2002
I. Methodology
Since 1998 the Hotline for Migrant Workers has been interviewing victims of trafficking in Neve
Tirza prison for women and in various detention centers around Israel. On the basis of the experience accumulated over this period, a questionnaire has been developed of 164 questions. It includes a thorough examination of the history of the women from the moment they were 'recruited' to the sex industry in Israel, details of their life in their home country, their family, economic and
educational situation, through to the conditions of their work in Israel, including many details about their daily life, how many days they work a month, hours of work, number of clients, wages, state of health, experiences of violence etc. It ends with details of the authorities relations with them. The questionnaire includes 'closed' questions in which there are a number of possible answers to choose from, and 'open' questions in which the woman is able to express her views, position, dreams etc.
The research is conducted with four groups of women:
Detainees in Neve Tirza prison who are awaiting deportation.
Detainees in other detention centers in Israel who are waiting to be taken to Neve Tirza.
Escapees from various brothels who turned to the Hotline for help.
Prosecution witnesses who are waiting in a Tel-Aviv hostel to testify.
The following report is based on data collected by volunteers of the Hotline in various detention
centers and on 40 in-depth interviews that have been conducted thus far.
II. Arrest and Deportation
Victims of trafficking are still arrested, detained and deported. They are still treated as
criminals and kept behind bars.
During the period between March 1, 2001 and March 7, 2002, 494 women were deported through the
Neve Tirza prison for women. Of them, at least 384 (78%) had been arrested in brothels, "discrete"
apartment and the likes.
Of the 384 women, 95% of were from Moldova (51.3%), Russia (23.2%), and Ukraine (20.8%).
Their ages ranged from 16 to 45, with a median age of 22.
III. Prolonged Detention in Police Stations
During the period checked, the women were detained for an average of 11 days in police stations
and detention centers before they were transferred to Neve Tirza prison. If we compare this number
to the average detention time in police stations in the year 2000, which was 8 days, we see that not
only was there no improvement in the situation, but the situation has actually worsened.
Conditions in police stations are particularly hard and constitute an additional, unnecessary
punishment for victims of trafficking. Because most trafficked womens' documents are either forged
or are held by the pimps, detention in police stations also delays the process of acquiring new
travel documents, a process which usually begins only when they arrive at Neve Tirza prison.
IV. Violation of the Law of Entry into Israel
Moreover, according to the precedent established in the Supreme Court in the Sessai case,
a precedent which was recently codified in an amendment to the Law of Entry into Israel , every
foreigner detained under a deportation order must be brought "as soon as possible, and after no
more than 14 days" before a judicial review authority who may alter the terms of the deportation
order and reduce bail.
This precedent is consistently violated. In a survey conducted among 170 women who we deported
during this period, we found that 71 (42%) had been detained for over 14 days without being brought
before the special Detainees Court, in explicit violation of the law. On average, the women were
detained for 16 days before they were brought before the court.
Furthermore, the law states that in such cases where it is not possible to bring a foreign detainee
before the Detainees Court within 14 days as required, he or she should be released by a Border
Control Officer. Nevertheless, this is never done, again in violation of the law, and to our
knowledge, only one woman was released for this reason - by the Detainees Court.
Adv. Sharon Bavli-Larry, who resides as a judge in this court has often criticized the police and
the Ministry of Interior for this in her decisions. But the only solution that is implemented today
is that she either goes to see the women in the police stations, or they are brought before her and
then taken back to the police stations and to the harsh conditions there.
V. Imprisonment Conditions
Despite the Law of Entry to Israel and international conventions, which explicitly state that the women should be separated from regular Israeli criminals, such separation is rarely carried out due to the over crowding of the prisons and the lack of prison cells. This situation has serious implications, in that some of the Israeli prisoners are drug addicts and there is concern that
women, who were victims of the sex trade, and whose mental state is already unstable, may fall into the drug trap because of their imprisonment with drug addicts.
There is no rehabilitation for the women in prison, despite the fact that they are victims of serious mental and physical trauma. Professor Julie Zvikel, of the Institute of Research of Women's Health at Beer Sheva University in the Negev, carried out a survey in brothels, which showed that 17% of the women are in a post-traumatic state, 33% of the women show symptoms of depression and 19% are at risk of developing clinical depression. First and foremost it should be ensured, at least, that there will be a social worker who can listen and talk to them.
The women are sometimes deported with no money at all, even if they live hundreds of kilometers from the airport, and without suitable clothes for the harsh winter in their countries of origin. In fact, 183 (46% of the 384 in total) could not even afford to pay for their plane ticket home and it had
to be financed by the government. The only humanitarian help which is offered is given by the Hotline, which brings them warm clothes and phone cards to the prison, or tries to make contact
with people outside that can help them.
VI. Medical Treatment
At Police Stations and in Prisons: Neither gynecological examinations, nor any other comprehensive medical examination is carried out with the women despite the obvious risk of health problems to be expected to be found in women in this state. Only if a woman complains of a medical problem will she get a medical check, and even then not immediately.
Prosecution Witnesses: These women, who are supposed to be under the custody of the Israeli Police, do not receive any kind of medical care whatsoever.
Until now dozens of women have been treated by another Israeli NGO, 'Physicians for Human Rights', accompanied by a volunteer from the Hotline who visits the hostel regularly at least once a week and takes care of, amongst other things, arranging appointments for the women to see gynecologists, dentists etc. The police have no answer to this problem, apart from taking the women, rarely (twice, according to our knowledge), to the prison clinic.
Even in urgent cases, the police are reluctant to help. For example, the police refused to finance medical checks for a woman in her forth month of pregnancy who was suffering from severe pains. Only after it was made clear by the Hotline to the relevant unit, that the woman will be taken to the hospital to be examined, and that the cost of the treatment will be claimed from the Israeli police, did they relent.
In another incident, a volunteer from the Hotline arrived at the hostel to find one of the women in agony with back pain. The answer that the woman got after three days of waiting in pain, was that the police had no suitable personnel or vehicles to take her to have medical examinations. In a few cases women were taken for a medical check on their admission to prison, but most are taken straight from the police station to the hostel without even a minimal medical check, which is essential in these women's situation.
In another case a woman who hadn't menstruated for six months was taken by the Hotline to a doctor from 'Physicians for Human Rights'. The police refused to finance her medical check and treatment
(at the symbolic cost of NIS 130). They claimed that they have their 'own specialists' who take care of problems of 'foreign women in this situation'. When the volunteer asked for the telephone number of 'these specialists', she received a fax with the number of Physicians for Human Rights and the name of Sigal Rosen, the executive director of the Hotline even though this case could have been,
in any other situation, an amusing anecdote, in today's situation it is not at all amusing, and endangers the women's health.
The Hotline made a number of approaches to the government regarding this subject. On September 9, 2001 Adv. Nomi Levenkron, of the Hotline, approached Dudi Peretz from police headquarters, with the request that they finance dentist treatment for three women who were suffering from severe tooth pains. His reply was that "Beyond our normal obligations, the Israeli police are prepared to give preliminary help (emergency treatment) for tooth pain for the women mentioned Please send me cost estimates for this emergency treatment only."
Also, the office of the Legal Advisor to the Government was approached on December 17, 2001 with the request that the issue be treated, but until now no answer of any sort has been received. On March
03, 2002 another approach was made, and if no answer is received within three weeks, the Hotline, along with Physicians for Human Rights and the Clinical Legal Education Program of Tel-Aviv University will appeal to the Supreme Court, to deal with this issue.
The move of MP Zehava Gal'on, to make an agreement for the victims of these crimes so that they be entitled to health services without any discrimination, has not even got through the preliminary reading. In a meeting that was held with the Minister of Health in the Parliamentary Committee
headed by MP Gal'on, the Minister of Health, Nissim Dahan, stated that the cost of the law to the Ministry of Health would be between 60 -70 million a year, and would be a heavy burden on the state's budget.
In one instance tests were carried out in brothels by the health authority and were done in shocking circumstances: Health authority representatives, accompanied by the police, went to brothels with the aim of finding out how much these places constitute a danger to public health. 300 women were examined in a manner which violates the law regarding the rights of patients. They were told by the pimps, who had been ordered to do so by the police, to take invasive medical checks, such as blood tests and throat scrapes. Volunteers from the Hotline spoke to two women who had been through these tests, and both of them stated that they had not wanted to have the tests, but were made to go through them. One of them was in the later stages of pregnancy at the time of the tests but the representative from the health authority did not pay attention to this or perhaps preferred to ignore it. The same woman was hit hard by her pimp at a date close to the medical examinations, the result of which she gave birth prematurely at the end of her sixth month of pregnancy.
A letter of complaint on this subject was sent by the Hotline to the Minister of Health on December, 12, 2002. The answer that was received was that " The Ministry of Health does not supervise the way in which the police carries out medical checks of escort girls". When it was made clear in an additional letter, that the it was indeed the Ministry of Health that had conducted these tests,
and not the Police, and that the findings of these tests had been presented by a representative of the Ministry of Health to a parliament committee, an additional answer was promised but nothing further has been heard so far.
VII. Prosecution Witnesses
The common explanation that had been used in the past to explain the so-called need to hold witnesses in detention (prior to Supreme Court ruling that they should not be held in prison) was that witnesses' lives are in danger outside. Surprisingly, today no one seems to think that this danger
exists, judging from the total lack of police protection for the witnesses. There have been cases of disappearances of women in hostels, but the police disregarded these cases claiming the women did not want to testify and therefore left the hostel of their own will. No investigation was ever made by the police to ensure that this was the case.
Some police units are not aware of the procedure for moving such prosecution witnesses (or foreign witnesses in general) to hostels. The Hotline recorded eight cases in the past year of women who were imprisoned in order to give testimony. In two of the cases the women were accused of possessing a few grams of drugs and of illegal residency, crimes that foreigners are never prosecuted for, but are deported for. It seems that the police tried to prevent their deportation on these charges, while avoiding to pay for the cost of the hostel for the witnesses.
The legal position of the women during this process depends on a piece of paper that is given to them, in some of the cases by the police unit looking after the case and on which is handwritten to which particular unit the woman 'belongs'. Beyond this they have no legal status whatsoever.
VIII. Visas
In the past year 25 women who were prosecution witnesses have made applications for temporary working permits, but several months passed before one woman received an answer from the Ministry of the Interior, which said that 'If the department of inquiries recommends to give her a permit, after
it is convinced that there exists a danger to her life if she would return to her own country, the Ministry of the Interior will consider the recommendation positively. The same applies to the remaining women who agreed to testify against their employer'.
The Hotline sent out another letter, on November, 8, 2001 regarding two women whose lives were very much in danger. One of them, A.K, was a witness in 1995 together with three other women. Two had been sent back to their home country and were murdered there, and as a result, the remaining two witnesses were not deported. In another instance, a Moldavian citizen who had testified against a Moldavian trafficker was held in Abu Kabir Detention Center to keep her separate from the trader who was held in Neve Tirza prison. Now the trader has been deported to Moldavia, and it is fair to assume that the anticipated risk to the victim hasn't decreased at all. Until now, despite the fact that over five months have passed, there has been no answer regarding these two women.
IX. Escapees
The Hotline is the only organization in Israel today which helps women who have escaped from their pimps and traffickers and who are afraid to turn to the Israeli police because they don't trust the police, or do not wish to testify.
So far the Hotline's efforts at approaching relevant offices have resulted in complete failure, and every one has denied any responsibility for this painful issue. The Ministry of Interior is prepared to provide work visas for Kibbutz volunteers but only if the women are cooperating with the police
in an investigation. In a telephone conversation that Adv. Levenkron had with Batya Carmon, the Head of the Visas and Foreigners department in the Ministry of the Interior, it was made clear that in her view "the women have nothing to look for here", and particularly women from Eastern Europe, as Kibbutz places are reserved for "people from Western Europe, USA etc"
Hagay Herzel, advisor to the Minister of Internal Security on migrant workers, was contacted with a request to finance one or two additional rooms in the hostel where the prosecution witnesses are housed, for these women. No meaningful answer was received.
Furthermore, according to the policy of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, women in this situation cannot stay in shelters for battered women because this will increase the existing risk
to the Israeli women there. It should be made clear, that if the women in the various brothels knew that a shelter was waiting for them outside, many more would try to escape; however in today's situation, the number of women who do try to run away is worryingly low. This reflects, amongst other things, the inability of the state to give any solution to this particular problem.
There are the first signs that a shelter is going to be built, but this process is very long, and
for now there is no solution to the outstanding day to day problems, and there is a definite sense that this serious problem is being ignored.
X. The Police
There is some increase in the concern that the police is showing to this problem, although we believe that it is only a result of the actions of several non-governmental organizations, such as the Amnesty
Report in 2000 and of the USA State Department report in 2001.
Policemen continue to carry out passport checks in brothels. The police claim that this helps to
find women who have been kidnapped following notification from some authority (mainly consulates) about a disappearance. But most of the checks serve the opposite purpose; as a result of the checks the women are scared of testifying. They say that the police are only interested in whether they are illegal residents, and not whether they are in the brothel of their own free will.
Collaboration between the pimps and the police continues, whether this is in a passive manner (by visiting the brothels as clients), or in an active manner (such as being involved in the trade and warning them of police raids). Most of the women are scared of making a complaint against the police.
In May 2001 the Hotline appealed against the Israeli police on behalf of four women. Three of the women stated that the policeman who arrested them had been a client at the brothel one day before their arrest; while the policeman who investigated them at the police station had been a client at the brothel that very morning. The fourth woman said that she was scared of testifying because the pimp held close relations with policemen, who used to visit the brothel; also that three women who had been detained by the police at the time she was in brothel were returned the same day to the brothel, indicating again, in her eyes, police cooperation with the pimp. Even when an investigation was carried out into the matter, after the appeal had been presented by the Hotline, to the best of our knowledge the suspicions relating to police involvement were not investigated.
In another case, a woman from Haifa told a Hotline volunteer that two clients had come to the
brothel, one of them entered her room and began sexual relations with her, and only after his friend, knocked on the door and shouted at him to hurry up did the 'client' show her his police identification and tell her he was arresting her. She was then taken to Kishon detention center.
XI. Legal Representation for Victims of Trafficking
A move for a law on this subject has passed its preliminary reading, but in the field, there is
still no state representation for the women. Representation and legal advice to date is provided by volunteers of the Hotline, or by lawyers who are paid for by the pimps.
One example of the implications of the lack of representation: the Hotline recorded nine cases of women detained in Neve Tirza prison, whose deportation was delayed by lawyers representing the pimps and traffickers so that they would testify as defense witnesses in their trial. The court, who delayed their deportation, did not even ask to hear from the women whether they wished to be delayed. As a result, the women were prevented from leaving the country and detained for a very long time in prison. We know for certain that at least three women did not wish to testify as defense witnesses. Following the intervention of Hotline, the detention order was cancelled against one of them and she was able to return to her country. Two other women were deported after they refused to leave the prison to go to court on the day that they were supposed to testify on behalf of the pimp.
The need for representation also arises in civil cases against pimps, and is especially essential because of the low compensation, if any, that is given to victims in the course of criminal proceedings. (see the following section).
Until now only two women have filed civil suits against their pimps, and even this was through the help of the Hotline. This procedure is very problematic because the state won't give the women visas, a place to stay, medical insurance etc.
XII. The Judicial System
In a meeting of the parliamentary investigative committee headed by MP Zehava Gal'on, the Minister
of Justice, Meir Shitrit, made several verbal attacks on human rights organizations for passing information to the U.S., and compared it to passing information to the Palestinians. Such an
approach reflects the kind of attitude which the legal authorities have towards the problem of the trade in women: of 'sorrow' that they have to pay so much attention to this matter because of external pressures.
Most of the women are not aware of what exactly happens during the legal process. Nobody informs
them who is being put on trial, and whether he is in detention, how many charges are being presented, against whom etc. Volunteers from the Hotline invest a lot of time in trying to get answers to these questions, but in most cases they are chasing barristers and not getting any answers.
The punishments are still very lenient. Despite the fact that the law can call for a maximal punishment of 16 years imprisonment, the longest sentence ever to be given to a trafficker has been four years, and even that was only in one case. There are particularly shocking cases: for example a policeman who was convicted of collaborating with traffickers, and for buying and selling women, was sentenced to just six months community service (although his crime was committed before the law against trafficking was passed it was still possible to sentence him to several years imprisonment, for the other crimes committed).
Compensation for the women who testify in criminal proceedings is still the exception and not the rule. In a verdict given by Judge Pizan in Haifa, it was clearly ordered that the accused should
pay a NIS 40,000 fine to the state, but no compensation payment was ordered for the women, so that "they won't think that they can make money out of coming to Israel illegally". Even when
compensation is decided upon it is very small in relation to the profits of the pimps and traffickers.
