By Hilary Leila Krieger
Jerusalem Post - March 4, 2004
Former sex slaves who are willing to testify against
the men who enslaved them can now receive Israeli work permits and stay at
a new shelter providing support services aimed at weaning them from
prostitution.
The measure, approved by the Interior Ministry, was
announced Wednesday at a meeting of the Knesset Committee of Inquiry into
Trafficking in Women.
The women will be able to live and work legally in
Israel for a year, after which they will return to their native countries
or seek renewals, which would be granted primarily to those whose testimony
has yet to be completed.
Currently, police place victims who agree to testify
in hotels and private residences, where they often return to prostitution,
in part because they have no legal work status. They have to leave the country
immediately after they appear in court and don't receive the psychological,
medical, or legal services that the shelter offers.
The state hopes the new program will give the women
a reason to stay involved with the system rather than flee.
The shelter, which can house up to 50 women, opened
two weeks ago and currently holds nine of the country's 84 former sex slaves
who are waiting to testify.
"Since women want to send money home to their families
in their country of origin, we need to allow them a legal alternative to
work and earn money. In this way we will decrease their motivation to continue
working in prostitution. Without this, it will mean the women will stay in
the shelter 24 hours a day as in a pressure cooker," shelter director Ronit
Davidovitch told the committee.
Rita Chakin, who coordinates the anti-trafficking project
at Isha L'Isha, the Haifa Feminist Center, welcomed the inauguration of the
shelter and the granting of work permits, but said they are no panacea.
For one thing, they help only those who agree to serve
as witnesses. While Chakin has no specific statistics, she knows of many
cases where women have declined to testify out of fear of their former captors
or even out of loyalty to them.
"Israel has no solution for these women," she
said.
She estimates that the country has 6,000-7,000 sex
slaves, though the Knesset Center for Research and Information survey put
the number at half that.
Women who are arrested by police in raids, escape from
the brothels, or otherwise end up in custody are generally quickly deported
to their home countries if they don't agree to testify against their former
pimps.
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