Needing labor, Israel recruits workers from India, Sri Lanka
Workers from South Asia are heading to Israel, whose need for labor has become more pressing since the Hamas-led attack in October.
Israel's government closed crossings from the West Bank, cutting off thousands of Palestinians from work, and many of the foreign workers whom Israel relies on to operate its farms and construction industry left. Most of the roughly 30,000 foreign agricultural workers in Israel were from Thailand, dozens of whom were kidnapped or killed on Oct.
7.
In the coming weeks, thousands of people from India and Sri Lanka will be sent to Israel, officials in the three countries said, as part of agreements to supply workers, primarily in construction, health care and agriculture. India and Sri Lanka suffer from high unemployment, and officials said they have received thousands of applications for construction jobs in Israel.
Mukesh Ranjan, a construction worker in the northern Indian state of Haryana, said that despite the risk presented by the war in Gaza, he and dozens of others from his village had applied for construction jobs through a state government agency, which said it has received more than 2,500 applications.
Ranjan said that if he is selected, he would use the wages to pay for better schooling for his two teenage daughters and to pay down debt incurred because of losses on his farm.
«I will jump on the opportunity,» he said.
The recruitment is part of a deal struck in May between India and Israel that would grant permits to 42,000 Indian workers, Indian news media reported.
About 34,000 workers would be employed in construction and 8,000 in health care.
About 10,000 Sri Lankan workers are already employed in Israel, primarily as caregivers in the health care sector. Bandula
