Immigrant Absorption Ministry may repay immigrants whose shipments were unloaded in foreign ports.
By RUTH EGLASH, DAN IZENBERGHaifa Port 224.88(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The Immigrant Absorption Ministry is considering offering financial compensation to immigrant families whose shipments were unloaded in foreign ports last month following port strike here, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The move by the ministry came after the Post alerted it to the fact that many new immigrants and returning Israelis were being charged extra to have their shipments brought back to Israel from places like Turkey, Cyprus, Italy and Egypt.
Many of the families have yet to receive their belongings, though the strike ended more than a month ago.
"We've already met with representatives of the Transportation Ministry to discuss ways to solve this problem with shipping companies," Immigrant Absorption Ministry Director-General Erez Halfon, told the Post this week. "However, it is unlikely that we will be able to reach an agreement with these private companies on reducing the additional charges."
Halfon added that after Succot, the ministry plans to "investigate the possibility of providing families with some financial compensation."
Although he would not divulge how much or in what form such compensation would take, only that "we want to do all we can to help out new immigrants to our country."
"I really believe that the government should take responsibility for this situation," said former New York resident Alisa Berg, who made aliya with her husband, Mordechai, and their four children in mid-August.
"I still have not received my shipment," she added. "I think it's unfair that we have had to go out and buy items that we already have. It's costing us a fortune and is especially hard on the children who want their things."
Berg, who now lives in Beit Shemesh and had expected her shipment to arrive two days after the family, said that her shipping agent has still not confirmed when the goods will be delivered or pinpointed whether the family will be charged extra for bringing the shipment from Turkey, where it was unloaded last month.
According to shipping agent Shmuel Mantinband from Sonigo International Shipping, there are scores of other families in the same position as the Bergs. Some are also being billed for the storage costs while their shipment remains in the foreign port.
"The first group of containers arrived in Israel on September 26 and 28; it has taken them seven days to unload and only now bills from the shipping companies are starting to arrive in our office," said Mantinband.
He estimated the additional costs to families could range from $250 to $800, depending on the size of the container and where it was diverted to.
"Nobody is happy about paying these extra fees," he continued. "We try to do our utmost to avoid such hidden costs, but sometimes we have no choice but to charge our customers these fees."
Mantinband said that additional fees following strikes and shipping diversions are part of a worldwide phenomenon that is not unique to Israel.
"It has happened in previous strikes and even during the Second Lebanon War," he said.
If the Immigrant Absorption Ministry does not agree to provide the newcomers with some assistance, immigrants may have some recourse, according to Moshe Leshem of Leshem-Kipperman Law Offices.
He said that if the carrier unloads the shipment at a port other than the port of destination, it must officially declare that the substitute port is the "end of voyage."
Otherwise, the carrier is still obliged to bring the shipment to Israel in accordance with the original contract of carriage.
If the carrier does make such a declaration, he suggested that customers immediately notify their respective insurance companies, with which they have insured their shipments, and increase their coverage to account for the final leg of the journey from the substitute port to the port of original destination.
Leshem said the extension would cost the customer a rather small fee, but would cover the cost of bringing the shipment to Israel.
Leshem also said that if injured parties want to sue the carrier for being charged the extra fee, they ought to do so in Small Claims Court, where neither side is represented by a lawyer.
According to legislation that went into effect on September 1, plaintiffs may sue in Small Claims Court for up to NIS 30,000 in damages. Leshem added that the judges in these courts are often sympathetic to the plaintiff.
The strike, which was imposed by port workers during the last week of August and beginning of September, saw hundreds of ships diverted to Italy, Turkey and Cyprus to unload their cargo.
The strike was called by the Histadrut to protest a clause in the 2009 economic arrangements bill calling for the privatization of port operations.
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