Jerusalem (AFP)
Israeli authorities have deported a Filipino female worker and her teenage son, who was born and raised in Israel, said an NGO on Tuesday defending the cause of children threatened with expulsion by the Jewish state.
The immigration authority in Israel has confirmed this expulsion.
Rosemarie Perez was arrested last week with Rohan, her 13-year-old son, because of the expiry of her work visa, despite protests in support of foreign workers and their children. About 600 families from the Philippines, including many with children born in Israel, are facing deportation, according to the NGO United Children of Israel (UCI).
The mother and her son were taken to Ben Gurion airport Sunday night, but had been "out of the plane" at the last moment, giving them a slim hope of normalizing their situation in Israel.
But Monday night, Rosemarie Perez and his son, who speaks Hebrew and has never set foot in his mother's home country, were boarded by a flight of the Israeli company El Al to Bangkok from where they should take a plane to Manila.
"Rosemarie has been in Israel for many years including 12 illegally," the immigration authority in Israel said in a statement.
"We are so frightened of our children now that we have seen Rohan leave," AFP Beth Franco, an official of the UCI, Israel-based organization defending the rights of working children, told AFP. immigrants.
Some 28,000 workers from the Philippines reside in Israel, most of whom are employed as home helpers. Their visa is however conditional on the fact that they do not start a family in the country, except in exceptional circumstances.
Issues relating to migrants and immigration are particularly relevant in a country concerned with maintaining a majority Jewish population.
© 2019 AFP