Police: Govt worker pocketed money meant for passport renewals

An employee of the Population, Immigration, and Borders Authority stole tens of thousands of shekels that was paid by citizens looking to renew their passports at a branch of the agency in the Sharon region, police said Monday.The suspect, a 37-year-old resident of Usifiya, reportedly pocketed the money while on the job, and could now face charges of aggravated fraud.The case was opened by police earlier this month after they received a complaint from PIBA about missing funds that were suspected stolen. This eventually led them to the employee, who was arrested on Sunday. The Rishon Letzion Magistrate court on Monday ordered him kept in custody for two days and approved a request submitted by his attorney to put a gag order on publication of his name.In other PIBA news, the agency said Monday that they managed to arrest 32 Ukrainian and Russian citizens who had been brought to Israel on tourist visas and were remaining in Israel illegally to work without permits. The foreign workers were all brought to Israel as part of the same network and were given jobs immediately upon arrival in Israel, PIBA said.According to the agency’s estimates, there are around 90,000 foreign citizens on overstayed tourist visas in Israel, in addition to around 15,000 foreign workers without permits.