Gov’t to penalize people who employ Ivorians, S. Sudanese

Population, Immigration and Borders Authority says it will start leveling fines and indictments against law-breaking employers in March.

By BEN HARTMAN
South Sudanese in Tel Aviv 390 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
South Sudanese in Tel Aviv 390
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
The Population, Immigration and Borders Authority said Thursday it would begin taking steps to crack down on employers hiring citizens of South Sudan and the Ivory Coast.
PIBA said it would start leveling fines and indictments on March 3 against those employing Ivorians, and on April 1 against those employing South Sudanese.
In January, the authority said that because of what it called improvements in the security situation in the Ivory Coast, the state could begin working to return Ivorians beginning February 1.
While the government does not have exact figures on the number of Ivorians in Israel, they are among the estimated several thousand west Africans here.
PIBA announced last week that beginning April 1, South Sudanese would be forcibly deported, but that those who left before then would be eligible for a one-time 1,000- euro resettlement stipend.
The authority estimates that there are over 3,000 South Sudanese in the country, though members of the community believe the number is closer to between 500 and 1,000.
Valerie Amos, emergency relief coordinator at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said after returning from a trip to South Sudan at the beginning of February that “the situation in the country is extremely precarious, and the risk of a dangerous decline is very real.”
Speaking of the food shortage in the country, she said that “the scope of this crisis cannot be ignored.”