Israel modifies plans to deport migrant worker families

[pampango]

Source: BBC


Little Eustace Uzoma plays happily in a Tel Aviv park,
near the home in which she has lived ever since she was born.

The shy five-year-old speaks fluent Hebrew and is already in the school system. But she is almost oblivious to the fact that there are some people in the Israeli government who want to deport her and other children who are fully assimilated into Israeli society, because their parents are here illegally.

Israel has approved plans to deport the families of illegal migrant workers, and government spokesman Roei Lachmanovich told the BBC the plan would affect some 400 children and their parents. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was made because the country faced increasing illegal migration, which was a threat to its Jewish character.

Eustace's father, Vincent, is originally from Nigeria but came to Israel 14 years ago on a legal tourist visa. Having outstayed his official welcome, he settled down here and a job, got married and had children. "It's unfair and unjust," says Vincent of the deportation plan as he carefully watches his youngest daughter on the swings. "These children are born here and speak the language. Israel should recognise their birthright."

Campaigners like Noa Kaufman from the organisation Israeli Children says the recent sight of immigration inspectors conducting spot checks on people in the street is tantamount to persecution. "You can't simply put a child and it's mother, against their will, on a plane out of the country to somewhere the child doesn't know," says Ms Kaufman.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10832722

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Some of the issues sound very familiar to those we face here.

[Igel]

1. Similar, but different.

Presumably she's not a citizen, although born there. Oddly, she seems to have no biological mother.

If her parents weren't Israelis then she's not, regardless of where she's born. That's the law. It's not an uncommon version of the law worldwide; the US is, in many ways, the odd man out. It's just that the family wants to stay there and are poor and powerless (on the whole) in a prosperous country.

My usual argument applies. The parents knew that their kid wouldn't be a citizen and that she and they could be deported at any time. They, or at least he, decided to stay because it was good for him short-term and possibly long-term. Her plight results from his choice. They may have hoped it would work out differently, but hopes aren't guarantees and nobody says that you're spared the consequences of your choices. In fact, he seems to want the Israeli government to bear the consequence of his choice.

[McCamy Taylor]

4. So the battered child's plight is none of our business because it results from the father's

choice? Your "usual argument" is full of holes. Children are not their parents' property. They are individuals in their own right and society has an obligation to protect them from their parents' bad choices.

[ISW]

2. Children are such a threat to governments.

[madrchsod]

3. benny is one racist son of a bitch....