Foreign Worker Saved From Deportation Receives Unprecedented Compensation for Wrongful Imprisonment

July 8, 2008

Although she had a valid work permit, Su (her name has been changed at her request), a Thai migrant worker, came within hours of being deported to Bangkok after being unlawfully imprisoned for 36 days. But after a dramatic last-moment intervention by NIF grantee KavLaOved: Workers Hotline, Su was released from prison, received significant financial compensation, and is now once again working.

The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court ordered Israel’s Immigration Police to pay her more than $11,000 compensation, an award of unprecedented size. Su was arrested last February along with 11 male Thai migrant workers when the farm they were working on was closed down by government health inspectors due to unsanitary conditions. All 12 migrant workers, including Su, had valid work permits.

While the Thai men were released within a few days and soon found new employment, Su was inexplicably kept in prison for 36 days despite her valid work permit. She was handed an expulsion order and held in a cell at Ben Gurion International Airport pending her deportation. At no point was she brought before a judge as Israel’s due process procedure demands. 

Yuval Livnat, a lawyer for KavLaOved: Workers Hotline heard about Su's plight just as she was preparing to be flown home. Livnat received an emergency court injunction against the deportation and managed to revoke her expulsion order.

"The authorities apparently asked for the expulsion order solely because they could not find her a new employer," explained Livnat. 

Su then sued the Israeli Police for compensation for her incarceration. She was represented by the Tel Aviv University Law Clinic, which succeeded in defeating the State Defender's claim that the compensation being asked for was too high.  The New Israel Fund family continues to spearhead human rights and social justice issues on behalf of the growing number of migrant workers in Israel.