The Phnom Penh Post

Israel deports Filipina worker, Israeli-born son

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ISRAEL has deported a Filipina migrant worker and her Israeli-born teenage son after 11th hour legal appeals failed, a children’s rights group and authoritie­s said on Tuesday.

She is among some 600 workers from t he Philippine­s who activ ists say could face deportatio­n over a loss of residency status.

They include those who breached the conditions of their residency by starting families in the country.

The families and supporters say deporting the children to a country which they have never seen and whose languages they do not speak is a cruel policy.

Rosemarie Perez was arrested by immigratio­n officials along with her 13-year-old son Rohan last week for remaining in the country illegally.

They had been taken to Ben-Gurion airport near Tel Aviv on Sunday night after an appeals court upheld their deportatio­n, Beth Franco of the United Children of Israel (UCI) associatio­n said.

But they were taken off the plane after their lawyer requested an urgent hearing on their status in a bid to have them remain in Israel.

On Monday evening, they were escorted to Ben-Gurion airport where they were put on a flight to Bangkok for onward connection to Manila, Franco said.

Israel’s immigratio­n authority confirmed in a statement that they had been deported, adding that Perez had been in the country illegally for 12 years and that all court appeals had been exhausted.

Last week, migrants, their children and Israeli supporters held a protest in Tel Aviv against the policy of deporting Israeli-born children of migrants.

Many of the 28,000 – largely Christian – Filipinos in Israel arrived to work as caregivers and home help, but according to UCI, some 600 families could now face expulsion.

Their v isas were conditione­d on the requiremen­t t hat t hey do not start a family in t he countr y apart from certain exceptions, t he associatio­n says.

The issue has particular resonance in Israel, where there are long-term fears about maintainin­g a Jewish majority in the country which was founded as a national homeland for Jews.

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