On chasing humans

The migration police was/is at it, once again, chasing refugees and labor migrants in order to expel them.

And, legally speaking, anyone who gives shelter or otherwise assists "illegal aliens" , can be tried and sent to jail for up to 20 years!. Although i suspect the law is meant for traffickers, it applies to anyone assisting an "illegal alien". I wonder if it applies to the social workers of "mesila", the municipal social services agency for migrant laborers, to the volunteer teachers of the "noar oved velomed" youth movement, who run a wonderful educational project for migrant and refugee children in Jaffa, to the teachers of the Bialik rogozin school where many of the migrant and finally to myself, as i am part of a project of volunteers who go out and try to warn migrant laborers and refugees whenever the police carry out their nasty hunt parties.

When ever we hear about the hunt activities, we come quickly and notify people in the area to be careful. We also make photographs of the activities, so people can familiarize themselves with thefaces of the undercover migrant police and stay out of their way as much as possible.

Today it was my turn. I got an SMS message and was off. The area of the central bus-station. By now the migrantion ;olice have become aware of our presence so they try to trick us, by diverting us to "non-actions" while the real "hunt" takes place in the next street. But this was no game. People are being hunted down, imprisoned and sent back to countries where they may be in severe danger.

Small children, many of them born here, who have never known any other place can be jailed and eported to a place they do not know. Loose there parents in the case of parents coming from different countries.

Yet at the same time the country brings in more and more migrant laborerers, through private labor agencies who make huge amounts of money on each migrant worker.

Corruption and a disregard for basic human rights go hand in hand.