- Immigration police officers on Wednesday found eight
Thai laborers living in sub-human conditions described by the police as
"not even suitable for animals" during a raid on the Oren Hacarmel
factory in Kibbutz Ramat Hakovesh, in the Sharon region.
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- The factory, located inside the kibbutz, manufactures
wood products. Its owner, a 55-year-old Kfar Sava resident, is to be indicted
for illegally employing foreign workers while bluntly violating their rights.
The workers were detained ahead of their deportation.
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- This is not the first time the Oren Hacarmel factory
has employed foreign workers illegally. Following intelligence information,
police and Welfare Ministry representatives, decided to carry out an additional
raid on the plant in order to examine the conditions in which the laborers
were being held.
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- The policemen were amazed to find that the workers lived
among the piles of wood surfaces made by the factory, in small makeshift
cubicles, with minimal facilities, in which they could hardly stand up
straight.
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- "The factory owner hid the workers between the wood
surfaces, in cubicles with the area of four meters by one meter,"
Central District Immigration Police commander Avihu Regev said Wednesday.
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- The police also said that during the raid the factory
owner set dogs at the policemen, and that two policemen were attacked by
them and required medical attention. The dogs were taken by a Health Ministry
veterinarian to be quarantined.
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