"You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" - Exodus 22:20
March 24, 2003
Trafficking in Women in Israel March 2001 - February 2002
I. Methodology
The following report is based on information collected by volunteers of the Hotline
for Migrant Workers regarding victims of trafficking in women imprisoned at the Neve
Tirza prison for women between 2000-2002, and on 100 in-depth interviews conducted with
women detained in Neve Tirza prison, in Michal detention facility in the city of Hadera,
and in police lockups throughout the country, with women waiting to provide testimony,
and women who escaped from their traffickers and who fear turning to the authorities.
The interviews were conducted by the Hotline for Migrant Workers and by Isha le'Isha
Feminist Center in Haifa, using a questionnaire developed by the Hotline, which includes
159 questions.
The report also refers to minutes of conferences and to meetings of the Parliamentary
Inquiry Committee on Trading in Women headed by MK Zehava Gal'on, to a report of the
Inter-Ministerial Committee on Trafficking in Women, to a study conducted on the topic
of STD'S by the Ministry of Health in 2001, to a report of Professor Julie Tzvikel from
Ben Gurion University on "The Motivation and Mental Health of Sex Workers" and to judicial
decisions issued on the subject.
II. General Facts
Israel is a destination country for traffic in women for the purpose of prostitution.
According to the Israel Police, there are about 3000 trafficked women in Israel, while
human rights organizations claim that the numbers are much higher [1]. There are many factors
hindering attempts to arrive at an exact estimate. First of all, the women are employed
in a large number of brothels scattered all over the country and, secondly, this type of
trade is conducted in the twilight zone of the underworld. The large number of brothels,
some 300-400 [2] according to the police, and the even larger number of "discreet
apartments," support the assumption that the number of women employed in Israel's sex
industry is higher than official estimates.
The majority of the women come from former countries of the Soviet Union, mainly Moldova,
Ukraine, and Russia. In the past months we are witnessing a worrying rise in the number
of trafficked women from Uzbekistan (at the time of writing of this report we are aware
of 30 Uzbek women detained in Israel). Most trafficked women are young, in their 20s.
In the origin countries they are recruited for work in the Israeli sex industry by
diverse methods: some are promised "legitimate" jobs such as waitressing, modeling, and
nursing, which offer higher pay than they could ever hope for at home. Others are told
of the true nature of the jobs, but are not told about the true conditions they would
later be forced to work in. In rare cases women are abducted against their will.
Source: Data collected by volunteers of the Hotline for Migrant Workers
during visits to Neve Tirza prison.
Trafficked Women Detained at Neve Tirza prison 2000-2002
(by country of origin)
Until the year 2000, the women were brought into Israel in a variety of ways: with
false documents, by fictitious marriages [3], using falsified documents of Jewish
immigrants [4], or through the port of Haifa [5]. Due to tightening regulations, the trade
routes have changed, and most victims are nowadays smuggled through the Egyptian border.
The women land in Egyptian airports, mainly in Cairo, Hurghada and Sharm-al-Sheikh, and
are then taken to the Sinai by car. From there they cross the border on foot accompanied
by a Bedouin escort. It is a hard and dangerous journey. One of the women smuggled via
this route told a Hotline volunteer that she and a small group of women were kept in
hiding in a cave for a whole day without food or water. They had no choice but to drink
from puddles they found on the way. In one indictment the journey was described thus:
"After riding in a car for a few hours, the plaintiffs were taken out and led by foot
for two days, having had almost no sleep, accompanied by armed Bedouin and rushed along by
two of the defendants..." [6]
The IDF has also reported that numerous foreign workers and victims of trafficking are
smuggled through the Egyptian border every day. It is assumed that the those caught
smuggling in are but a small fraction of the actual traffic. According to an article
published in the supplement of Ha'aretz newspaper, regarding a single 10-day period,
the following individuals and substances were captured at one specific section of the
border: "July 22 - three bags of marijuana. July 24 - six additional bags. July
24 - 25 women, apparently victims of trafficking in women. July 26 - a group of ten
women. July 28 - a group of ten women. July 30 - we located two jeeps en route to an
encounter at the border. July 31 - Four Egyptians [reached] a vehicle awaiting them on
the Israeli side, four foreign workers and one woman crossed the border. Three bags of
marijuana were found, followed by five more bags later that day. August 1 - 15 women were
captured at the border, apparently victims of trafficking in women as well." [7]
As soon as they arrive in Israel, the women are put up for sale. There are two main methods
by which the women are sold: public auction, where the woman is exhibited in front of a
large crowd of pimps and sold to the highest bidder; or a private sale, where a woman is
sold by one pimp/brothel owner to another. The woman's intimate parts are often examined
in order to appraise the value of the "merchandise." The price of a woman may vary from
$4000 to $10,000, according to age and looks. The quality of the woman's false documents
is also a factor in estimating her price. [8] Judge D. Bein summed up the sale of one of the
women thus: "On December 16, 2000 Defendant no. 1 called the middleman and was told that
the sale could be made on the following day. A meeting was set for the following day at
McDonalds's Restaurant at the Gan-Shmuel intersection... negotiations were held regarding
the sale of Eliona for the purpose of prostitution. At the end of the negotiations,
Eliona was taken to the men's room, stripped naked, and examined by the buyer. It was
agreed that she would be sold for $6,000... Eliona's examination can only be compared to
the examination of cattle in the market."[9]
As previously mentioned, motivation for coming to Israel is the promise of good wages,
considered almost imaginary at home. Only upon arrival are the women faced with the fact
that they will have to "pay their debt" to the pimp before starting to earn any money.
This "debt" includes the cost of bringing them to Israel, the cost of their false papers
and, above all, the cost of their purchase, in the thousands of dollars. Some of the
women never get around to "repaying their debt," since they are constantly being resold,
acquiring new "debts," and not earning a penny for their labors. These frequent sales
and resales put the women into perpetual debt to the pimp, while meeting the clients'
demands for constant turnover.
III. Conditions in the Brothels
Interviews with victims of trafficking portray a harsh reality. The women are subjected
to every known kind of human rights violation, including physical and verbal abuse,
incarceration, rape, and abduction. Escape routes are blocked - their pimps know where
their families live in their countries of origin and threaten to harm them if the women
try to escape or to testify against them. "Working" hours in the brothels are extremely
long, about 15 hours a day, the women get few, if any, days off, and are forced to accept
clients even during menstruation. The pay is minimal, about NIS 30 ($ U.S. 6) per client.
This money is not given to them until they have paid their "debt." Furthermore, the girls
are fined for a number of so-called "felonies": for not fully satisfying a client, for
looking out the window, for talking on the phone, for leaving the premises without proper
authorization, for drinking a glass of alcohol without permission, etc.
IV. Arrest, Detention, and Deportation
The majority of the victims are still treated as criminals. They are arrested, detained
and deported. In 2002, 376 women were detained under deportation order at the Neve
Tirza prison for women. 270 (72%) of them were victims of trafficking, and of those,
261 were deported.
Source: Data collected by volunteers of the Hotline for
Migrant Workers during visits to Neve Tirza prison.
Until November 2002 nearly all foreign women arrested for illegal stay in Israel,
among them victims of trafficking, were brought to Neve Tirza prison and deported from
there. In November 2002, a new detention facility, the Michal Detention Facility, was
opened in the city of Hadera which can hold up to 84 women. Compared with the conditions
of detention of male migrant detainees, conditions in this facility are relatively good.
But unlike in Neve Tirza prison, where volunteers from the Hotline for Migrant Workers
were allowed to enter relatively freely (with advance coordination), in the Michal
facility volunteer visits are limited to two days a week. The Hotline for Migrant Workers
offered to provide legal aid to the women together with 15 law students from Ramat Gan
College of Law, and also to assist the women in the safe return to their home countries
with the aid of NGOs in origin countries. However, the proposal was rejected by the police.
In order to minimize operational costs, women are locked in their rooms most of the day
and are entitled to only two hours outside their cells. They may use the public phone for
only a few minutes a day. There is no rehabilitation for the women in detention, no social
worker who can listen and talk to them. Many are deported without appropriate clothing
and without a cent in their pockets. In fact, in 2002, 48% of the women deported could not
even afford to pay for their flight ticket home, and it had to be paid for by the Israeli
authorities. The authorities provided only for the women's journey to the international
airport, and from there, she would have to fend for herself, even when that meant travelling
thousands of kilometers in order to reach her home. Some women told us that they feared
they would be forced to work as prostitutes upon arrival in their countries in order to
earn passage back to their homes.
In addition, admittance of victims of trafficking to the facility in Hadera is "filtered".
Women whose departure from Israel is expected to take a long time, such as Uzbek citizens,
for whom it takes months to obtain travel documents, or asylum seekers waiting for their
case to be considered by the UN, are not "accepted" to Michal. Instead, they are forced
to remain in various lockups under very difficult conditions, where they often sleep on
the floor due to overcrowding of cells.
V. Embassies of Countries of Origin Issuing Travelling Papers
A common practice among traffickers in to take away the women's passports. The absence
of passports prevents them from leaving the country of their own volition and substantially
delays the duration of their imprisonment if they are arrested, until new travel documents
are issued by their embassies. The period of detention varies, depending on the country
of origin of the woman. According to data collected by the Hotline for Migrant Workers
at the Neve Tirza prison for women, the average time that passed from the moment a woman
was brought to prison until travel papers were issued for her by her embassy was 12 days
in 2001 and 10 days in 2002. In 2002 women from Russia waited for an average of 9 days
for their embassy to issue travel papers, women for Moldova and Ukraine waited for an
average of 10 days, and women from Uzbekistan waited 39 days on average.
The problem is much worse when the embassy is not cooperating, or if there is no embassy
at all. For example, in 2001 , O.T., a Tajik national, was detained in Neve Tirza prison
for 290 days (!) because travel papers could not be obtained for her as Tajikistan does
not have an embassy in Israel. In general, the attitude of the embassies of countries
from which trafficked women arrive is problematic to say the least. Very little is done,
if at all, to provide assistance to these women, and they are commonly viewed by their own
countrymen as prostitutes rather than victims requiring help. The consul of Moldova
regularly notes on the women's travel documents: "worked in Israel as a prostitute",
in order to "punish" the woman . The Hotline and Isha le'Isha have written to the
Ministry of Foreign affairs demanding that something is done to stop this degrading
practice, but nevertheless, the Moldovian consul continues to insist on it.
The Uzbek embassy also disregards the delicate state of these women. Of late, it has
begun to demand a tax of U.S. $25 from each women for issuing travelling papers, and if
she cannot afford the tax, as is almost always the case, the embassy refuses to issue
the papers. Israeli authorities have also refused to pay this tax on behalf of the women
and prefer instead to keep the women in detention even though every day in detention
costs more to the Israeli tax payer than these $25. While both authorities argue over
who is responsible for this tax, the women rot away in jail. The Hotline recorded three
cases in which Uzbek nationals were detained for three, five and six months while
waiting to be deported, and at the time of writing this report two Uzbek women are
being detained at the Michal facility in Hadera following their arrest in December 2002.
VI. Judicial Review
According to the Law of Entry into Israel, every foreigner detained under a deportation
order must be brought "as soon as possible, and after no later than 14 days after the
arrest" before a judicial review who may set terms for release on bail [10]. The term
"as soon as possible" is interpreted very loosely by the Israeli authorities: in 2002
a trafficked women waited for an average of 13 days before being brought before the
Administrative Tribunal which holds its hearing in prison. Moreover, the Hotline recorded
47 cases in which women were brought before the tribunal after the 14 day limit.
Three judges serve on the Administrative Tribunal, none of whom speak Russian, a language
spoken by most trafficked women. Translators are not used during the hearings, and so
often other detained women who speak some Hebrew, are asked to serve as interpreters
for the court, violating the women's right to privacy.
The authorities have also failed to hand out or publish any brochures or any
information papers to the women explaining to them what their rights are and what they
may ask from the Tribunal. The authorities have also refused to allow the Hotline to
hand out such brochures.
VII. Prosecution Witnesses
In 2002, approximately 130 women testified on behalf of the State of Israel against
traffickers and pimps. Following court rulings, prosecutions witnesses are not to be held
in detention while waiting to testify and the police must provide for their basic needs.
As there is no witness protection program in Israel, most prosecution witnesses are kept
in hostels paid for by the police, which are very loosely guarded. They are given a
weekly allowance of NIS 200 (about U.S. $ 40) to cover all their needs out of lodging
and food, and as the government refuses to provide the women with work permits, they
must make do with this small allowance. The government could allow the women to work so
that they earn some money which would help them to start new life when they return home.
However, all requests made to the authorities in this matter by the Hotline for Migrant
workers have been denied.
Witnesses receive no medical or physiological care, with the exception of emergency cases.
They are deported soon after testifying, and the authorities refuse to provide residence
permits to women whose lives are in danger in their countries as a result of their testimony.
Detention of prosecution witnesses
Some police units are still unaware of the court rulings which forbid the detention of
prosecution witnesses, and the result is that occasionally witnesses are detained rather
than put up in a hostel. In the past year the Hotline for Migrant Workers and Isha le'Isha
have recorded 17 cases where witnesses were held in detention while waiting to testify:
5 women were charged for staying illegally in Israel in order to prevent them from
leaving the country so that they would testify, 3 women were "forgotten" in police
detention in the city of Be'ersheva, and another 9 were detained in the Michal facility.
In another case, the State Prosecutor requested the court to issue an arrest warrant
against 9 women, so that they will wait for their testimony in prison. Only after the
Hotline for Migrant Workers intervened, were the women released and put up in a hostel.
Medical Treatment
Until very recently, prosecution witnesses were not covered by medical insurance and
could rely only on services provided by a free clinic in Tel Aviv run by the NGO
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and on two STD clinics open to victims of trafficking,
one in Tel Aviv and another in Haifa. The Hotline for Migrant Workers and PHR, represented
by the Tel Aviv University Clinical Law Program, petitioned to the High Court of Justice
requesting health insurance for witnesses. Following the petition the State replied that
it will award national health insurance to 50 witnesses.
VIII. Enforcement Against Traffickers
We have been witnessing some increase in the concern that the police is showing regarding
the crime of trafficking in persons, and while we do not have accurate numbers, we can
report that more traffickers have been brought to trial this year.
Also, the State Attorney has issued new directives calling for all police stations to
investigate the possibility of trafficking among foreign women arrested in brothels.
However, out of 100 women whom we interviewed, 28 stated that they had not been questioned
by the police about the crime of trafficking. They were either asked only about any forged
travel documents they may have had in their possession, or not at all.
Several indictments have also been issued regarding foreign women brought to Israel for
purposes of surrogacy. According to three indictments issued by the Tel Aviv Magistrate
Court, an attorney whose work involved adoptions, and 18 other individuals cited in the
indictment, ran a ring which imported women from the Former Soviet Union to Israel in
order that they should bear children to be adopted by Israeli families in exchange for
payment. In most cases the women arrived in Israel knowing what they would do upon arrival,
although at least one woman was told she would have regular work but upon arriving in
Israel was forced to choose between working as a prostitute or serving as a surrogate.
The defendants in this case were tried for relatively minor charges such as establishing
connections for the purposes of illegally receiving and transferring children for purposes
of adoption, and transferring custody of a minor in exchange for payment. Only these minor
charges could be pressed because current Israeli law refers to trafficking in women for
purposes of prostitution but does not account for cases of trafficking for purposes
of surrogacy.
IX. Corruption Within the Police Force
Collaboration between traffickers and policemen exists in two manners: a passive manner
where policemen visit the brothels as clients, and an active manner which involves
cooperation with traffickers and tipping off of police raids.
Out of 100 women interviewed by the Hotline and Isha le'Isha, 43 claimed that policemen
visited the brothel as customers. 17 women claimed that policemen who entered the
brothels officially, in order to make passport checks, later returned as clients. When
a woman is arrested by a former client, she is not likely to complain that she had
been held in the brothel against her will. In some cases brothels are closed just before
a police raid, so the police finds empty brothels. Some women complained that policemen
would tip off the pimps about planned raids. 11 women stated that the brothel owner was
on friendly terms with policemen, and two women claimed to have seen money pass
between them.
Other testimonies are no less worrisome. In one case recorded by the Hotline, a
prosecution witness waiting to testify in trial spotted her trafficker in a pub. She
immediately called the policeman that was investigating her case, and he promised to send
over a police car. A few minutes later she saw that the trafficker received a phone call,
after which he hurriedly left the place never to be seen again. The trafficker was never
apprehended and in the end, the woman's testimony was deemed unnecessary since there was
no one to prosecute. A request by the Hotline for Migrant Workers to the Police
Investigation Unit at the Ministry of Justice to investigate the matter remained
answered for so long that by the time a reply finally arrived, the woman had already
left the police hostel.
In another case, the police were slow to investigate a case of trafficking, despite
the fact that the complainant expressed her wish to testify. She claimed that the
brother of the trafficker is a police officer in Be'ersheva, and this was the reason
for the unwillingness to listen to her testimony. We requested that the police investigate
her case; but no policeman was ever sent to question her and after two months in detention
she was deported. We also have two testimonies regarding policemen who, in the course of
a raid on a brothel, stole money off women.
Women who were victims of trafficking, including those that are willing to testify
against traffickers, are extremely fearful of complaining against policemen. A major
problem facing these women is the fact that Police Investigation Unit at the Ministry
of Justice, which is in charge of investigating suspicions against policemen, seems to
lack the understanding of the phenomena of trafficking in persons, which involves
complainants that reside in the country on a temporary basis. The unit is extremely
slow in investigating the complaints, and more often than not, by the time an investigator
is sent to talk to a complainant, he or she has long left the country.
X. The Judicial System
The law against trafficking in human beings calls for a maximal sentence of 16 years
imprisonment. And yet, in most cases tried in 2002, the punishments given were lower
than 4 years. Only in 3 cases did traffickers receive heavy punishments: 8,9, and
10 years imprisonment.
On the most part, victims are not awarded compensation by the court in criminal
proceedings against traffickers, although the law provides for this. Although three
civil suits were filed against traffickers by their victims with the aid of the
Hotline for Migrant Workers, for most victims this is virtually an impossibility. The
government does not provide victims with any legal representation or aid, neither
in the criminal proceedings against traffickers, nor in civil suits. To add to this,
witnesses are deported immediately after testifying, and so they are denied the
possibility of filing a civil suit against the men who were convicted as a result
of their testimony.
XI. Minors
The treatment of minors is in particular a problematic. They are deported as if they
were adults, and receive no special treatment or care while in prison or while waiting
to testify. An example of this is the treatment of the authorities of a 16 year old
girl from Sri Lanka, whom we met in prison. She had been trafficked to Gaza, was
forced to work many hours, and was a victim of severe violence and abuse: her head was
pushed into an oven by her employer, her earrings were ripped off her, and she was
allowed one shower a month. She ran to Israel and was arrested by IDF troops and then
taken to Neve Tirza prison. It took the intervention of the Hotline and of MK Tamar
Gojansky for the authorities to provide an escort for her back to her family in Sri Lanks.
XII. Assistance to victims
1. A hotline for trafficked women
The Ministry of Labor set up an emergency hotline in January 2003 for victims of sexual
trafficking. The hotline accepts calls every day from 08:00- 20:00, but has gotten only
a few calls so far. To date it can offer information but cannot refer the victims to a
shelter, as there is currently no shelter for victims of trafficking.
2. Shelter
On December 1, 2002, the government went public with a decision to establish a shelter
for victims of trafficking in women and declared that a sum NIS 3 million (about U.S.
$ 600,000) would be allocated for this. It was reported that the shelter will be able
to accommodate up to 50 women at a time, including prosecution witnesses, candidates
for deportation, and women in a "thinking period" - those who are considering whether
they wish to press charges against the traffickers. Witnesses, it was said, will
reside in the open part of the shelter, whereas the rest of the women will remain in
a closed area functioning, in essence, as a prison. The initial date for the
establishment of the shelter - January 2003 - was postponed first to March 2003 and
then indefinitely. The Hotline for Migrant Workers, in collaboration with IOM,
approached the authorities proposing to set up this shelter but set three ground
principles for the program: 1) all witnesses will be adequately protected 2) the
women will leave the country of their own volition and will not be deported. 3) the
women will not be held in detention. The Hotline received a reply that the government
will accept proposals only from organizations willing to set up a shelter under the
terms stated in the government decision and refused to meet with Hotline
representatives to discuss its preconditions.
XIII. Political Will to Combat Trafficking in Persons
We are witnessing a change in attitude on the political level regarding the issue of
trafficking, and there are individuals within the government that are making good
faith efforts to combat trafficking and to help the victims. However, while many
committees have been formed and government officials discuss the problem, no
specific governmental funding has been allocated for these efforts, the result of
which is that they are ineffectual.
The overall impression is that the motivation of the government to act is stemming
from outside pressures rather than from a sincere concern for the women. The government
is primarily concerned about sanctions which the U.S. is likely to impose if Israel
does not meet the minimum standards for the suppression of trafficking set forth by
the American anti-trafficking act. This attitude is clearly expressed in the website
of the Ministry of Justice, which indicates that the activities of the Ministry are
meant "to remove Israel from the black lists". In other words, the objective is to get
off the black list, not necessarily to achieve substantial improvement in the
current situation.
The Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on the Trading in Women has presented ten different
proposed amendments pertaining to a wide range of subjects associated with victims of
trafficking in women, including the right to satisfactory medical care, the right to
legal representation by the state, and the obligation of the state to ensure the safety
of the women during the time they are giving testimony. It has also issued an interim
report including two proposed laws: the Proposed Law Forbidding Trafficking in Human
Beings, and the Proposed Law Regarding an Authority for Combating Trafficking in Human
Beings. These legislative proposals were developed in active collaboration with
non-government organizations and the positions and field experience of these
organizations were taken into consideration. However, to date none of these
laws have passed.
[1] For example, Prof. Menahem Amir claims, in Israel Women's Network
report of 1997, that every year, about 1,000 women are brought into the
country illegally.
[2] Report of the Inter-Ministerial committee on Trafficking in Women,
December 2002
[3] According to Israel Women's Network report (page 7), Israeli men
receive large sums of money in order to marry foreign women. The women
receive documents with a new identity and under this identity they are
sent to work in brothels.
[4] This method has become easier due to the wave of Jewish immigrants
coming from countries of the former Soviet Union since the 80s. Some
of the women even receive government assistance given to new
immigrants ("olim"), which is then passed on immediately
to the pimps.
[5] According to an interview held by Martina Vandenberg with Batya
Carmon, head of visa department at the Ministry of Interior, most
women in 1997 came in as tourists this way, abandoning their passports
in the ships that brought them.
[6] State of Israel vs. Solomon and others, criminal proceedings
(cp.) 1029/01
[8] According to data stated by police commander of the Tel Aviv
district, Chief Superintendent Yossi Sedbon, in a seminar on
prostitution and trafficking in women held on February,
2, 2001 at Beit Berl College.
[9] The State of Israel vs. Reuven Rivai, applications 4891/00
[10] Law of Entry to Israel (Amendment No. 9), 2001.
