Dozens block Tel Aviv street corner to protest migrant child’s arrest
Six-year-old daughter of foreign workers from the Philippines held
About a hundred immigrant rights activists blocked the corner of Rothschild Boulevard and Mazeh Street in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening to protest the arrest of a six-year-old girl and her mother by immigration inspectors earlier that day.
The girl, named AJ, is the child of migrant workers from the Philippines. She grew up in Israel, and was set to start the first grade in the Israeli school system this September. She and her mother were arrested because the mother’s work permit had expired; she and her daughter face deportation back to the Philippines.
Earlier on Sunday, a demonstration was held in front of Education Minister Gideon Saar’s residence, demanding that all children of migrant workers be spared deportation. “Where are you, education minister?” they shouted.
The demonstration was organized by Israeli Children, an organization dedicated to the prevention of the deportation of migrant workers’ children who have grown up in Israel.
In the past, Saar had voiced his support for a policy of allowing migrant workers’ children enrolled in the school system to remain in the country, their parents’ legal status notwithstanding.