'Foreign workers won't be deported after giving birth'

High Court cancels Interior Ministry procedure forcing female foreign workers to leave the country three months after they give birth.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Foreign workers children 311 R (photo credit: Reuters)
Foreign workers children 311 R
(photo credit: Reuters)
The High Court on Wednesday made a decision to cancel an Interior Ministry procedure forcing foreign workers to leave the country three months after they give birth.
Judge Ayala Prokchia stated in her ruling that the procedure does not meet the test of proportionality and reason.
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In a petition filed in 2006 by Kav Laoved, the Association for Civil Rights, The Hotline for Migrant Workers, Physicians for Human Rights and Na'amat against the Interior Ministry and National Insurance Institute, the organization requested that the court intervene to allow pregnant foreign workers to stay in Israel with their children after they give birth, and continue to work until the completion of 63 months of employment.
In March, a foreign worker and her six-month-old baby were deported from Israel, marking the first such deportation since the government ruled to expel 400 children illegally staying in Israel last year.
The deported mother originally came to Israel as a tourist with a group of Nigerian pilgrims, remained in Israel and gave birth to a baby.