TEL AVIV: In theheat of the summer, Sivan Noel and her sister Michal say they rarely ventureoutside of their family's small, basement apartment in Tel Aviv. The two girls,11 and nine, risk being deported to the family's home country, the Philippines,even though they've never set foot there. "I was born here," saidSivan, the 11-year-old. "It's really unfair that after being born here andhaving a family, friends, school and studies, we are being told that... we nowmust leave to a place that we hardly know."
They and hundredsof other Filipino families in Israel are caught up in a legal battle that hasput them at risk of deportation. Many of the 28,000 Filipinos in Israel arrivedto work as caregivers and domestic helpers, but according to the UnitedChildren of Israel (UCI) association, some 600 families could now faceexpulsion over a loss of residency status. The issue holds particular resonancein Israel, where there are long-term fears about maintaining a Jewish majorityin the country founded as a national homeland for Jews in the wake of theHolocaust. But children such as Sivan and Michal pose a special case.
They were born inIsrael, attend school in the country, speak and write on social media in Hebrewand dress in the same tank tops, shorts and sandals as other children in TelAviv. Their mother, Ramela Noel, arrived legally in the country in 2003 as adomestic worker. She later met her husband, who is also Filipino, and became pregnantwith Sivan, the oldest of the two girls. She then faced a heartbreaking choice:either leave the country or send her child to the Philippines in order tomaintain her visa, as spelled out in her employment contract.
'I startedcrying'
Noel said sheinitially chose to remain and send her child back to the Philippines to livewith her sister, Sivan's aunt. "When I gave birth to Sivan and they puther on my tummy, that's when I started crying," the 39-year-old said, thememory again bringing tears to her eyes.
She couldn'tbring herself to send the baby away, so the family began to live clandestinely.The two girls have no legal status and their parents cannot renew their workvisas without risking expulsion. Noel and her husband scrape out a livingcleaning homes. "Every time we go out on the street - the fear that I haveevery time I go on the street - it's terrifying," she said. This week, amother and her 13-year-old child were detained in southern Tel Aviv ahead of aplanned deportation.
Since the startof the year, members of 36 families, 24 of them Filipino, have been arrested.They were released on the condition they leave by August 1, but no one has beendeported for now, according to UCI, created to help those involved. The adultswere arrested for being in the country illegally, but their children wereallowed to finish the school year, according to a statement from Israel'simmigration authority, which declined an interview request.
With the schoolvacation underway, the threat of deportation is back. "Israel encouragedthem to come. There are recruitment services abroad for them," said SigalRozen, one of the founders of the Israeli organization Hotline for Refugees andMigrants. Filipinos were brought to Israel to fill a labor shortage. One memberof UCI who spoke on condition of anonymity said she cared for the elderly fornine years. "What do you expect me to do in nine years? Not to have sex,not to have love?" she said.
'Not make meforget'
In 2006 and in2010, while facing criticism to act, Israeli authorities granted permanentvisas to nearly 5,000 people, said Rozen. Catholic church heads have joinedcondemnations of the deportations, asking in a statement: "Does thispolicy respect the contribution of these women's labor to the Israelisociety?" Filipinos recently held a protest in Tel Aviv, supported byIsraelis. "We can't send children away," said 83-year-old DroraLustiger, who said her husband survived the Holocaust.
Nearby, separatedfrom the crowd by a security cordon, around a dozen counter-protesters calledfor the deportations to move ahead. "I'm concerned about the majority ofthe Jewish in Israel," said Sigal Sudai. "In many other countries inthe world, when their visa ends, they go back to their land." But Sivanand her sister, who have never travelled, say they consider Israel home."It would feel like I'm in a foreign place, a place that I don'tknow," said Sivan. "Maybe I will meet new friends or have newmemories there, but it will not make me forget that I have friends here, and afamily."- AFP