Arabs Against Discrimination[Thai workers found living in cages with geese and rats]

Thai workers found living in cages with geese and rats

Source: www.haaretz.co.il , Haaretz translation February 16, 2005

By: Yuval Azoulay

Immigration Police officers involved yesterday in a pre-dawn raid on a goose farm on Moshav Ben Zakai were horrified to discover 14 Thai workers living in cages designed for geese. The cages, located just meters from an open sewer, had apparently been home to the workers for the past several months. “They were living like animals,” said one shocked officer. “Poultry is usually kept in better conditions,” he added.

The raid was launched after the Immigration Police received an anonymous tip-off that the farm was employing illegal foreign workers.
In the 120 meters of cages, the officers found mainly geese and the occasional rat. But in one cage, the last section of the longest of the cages, they found the 14 workers asleep on filthy mattresses.

“The cages are very long and the workers were asleep in one 20-meter section,” said Chief Superintendent David Mondani, the head of the Immigration Police's central division. “The cage was raised slightly off the ground, around half a meter, and directly underneath was a gutter carrying the geese's excrement. There was no roof to speak of, just a flimsy asbestos covering.”

During the months that the workers were employed at the farm, they ate their meals inside the pens, watched television during their free hours and, even during the recent cold snap, slept inside the cages.

“At first we looked for the workers inside one of the buildings, but found nothing. We then searched the sheds, and we were shocked to find the workers sleeping there. They were very scared when we woke them,” Mondani added.

A preliminary investigation found none of the 14 workers had valid permits, and the Immigration Authority suspects that they were employed by the same farm where they were found sleeping. The Immigration Authority plans to deport some of the workers, while others will be granted work permits and found alternative places of employment.

Immigration Authority sources said yesterday that the workers apparently fled from their previous employer and found shelter in the goose farm. “It would appear that their boss took advantage of their dire situation and kept them in such appalling conditions.”

The owner of the goose farm, a 52-year-old resident of Ben Zakai, and his 30-year-old son were arrested yesterday. They will appear today at the Ramle Magistrate's Court for a remand hearing. They are suspected of exploitation and illegally employing foreign workers.

The suspects, who arrived at the Ramle police station for questioning in an expensive BMW jeep, deny all the charges against them. Indeed, they deny all knowledge of the 14 Thai workers. According to Mondani, however, there is evidence linking the two to the workers.