Infants are kept in unlicensed care centers, with untrained staff; State Comptroller slams government neglect
At least five babies have died in recent weeks at unlicensed, makeshift daycare centers for migrant workers and asylum seekers, bringing to ten the number of known infant deaths in the past four years.
The daycare centers, that Israeli media have dubbed “baby warehouses”, serve about 2,200 children in dozens of locations in Tel Aviv, are overcrowded, understaffed and what little staff there is are untrained.
The state comptroller warned in 2013 about the dangerous conditions and lack of official oversight. In September 2014 then-welfare minister Meir Cohen ordered NIS 2 million ($500,000) to be allotted for inspection of the centers. But Ynet reported Tuesday that eight months after the funds were pledged, and despite the ongoing child deaths, none of that sum has been provided.
“There are babies, toddlers, and sometimes also older kids who stay in these centers until late evening hours, in conditions of continuous neglect,” wrote the comptroller in his report. “They spend most hours of the day in crowded playpens in a state of ongoing neglect and without activities to stimulate and enrich them.
“Their treatment, supervision, and the fulfillment of their developmental needs are subpar and delay their cognitive and motor development. Sometimes one adult watches over about 30 children, who therefore suffer from a severe lack of physical touching and attention.”
The comptroller slammed the fact that his recommendations for significant inspection and licensing were not followed.
Labor Knesset member Merav Michaeli blasted the indifference towards the children’s fate. “These babies are completely invisible. Their neglect is criminal. You can avert your eyes, but you cannot hide the responsibility and wash your hands of it,” she told Ynet.
Asylum seekers to be deported
Meanwhile, under a new plan being prepared by the Population and Immigration Authority, Israel will begin to deport Eritrean and Sudanese citizens – even without their consent.
The Justice Ministry is expected to permit their deportation to neutral states. In the initial stage, the target countries are Rwanda and Uganda, according to the daily Haaretz.
There are about 42,000 citizens of Eritrea and Sudan in Israel. According to data the state provided the High Court, 5,803 citizens of Sudan and Eritrea left Israel last year, 1,093 of them to third countries.
A Haaretz investigation published last April revealed that those asylum seekers who left Israel for Rwanda and Uganda had no basic rights and no legal status in those countries. This made survival virtually impossible, prompting them to leave Rwanda and Uganda and resume being refugees once again, according to reports by human rights groups.
According to the United Nations refugee convention, asylum seekers cannot be sent to any country unless there is an agreement with that country that ensures their rights and welfare, notes Oded Feller, an immigration lawyer with the Association of Civil Rights in Israel.
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