- An Israeli company has required thousands of Chinese
workers to sign a contract promising not to have sex with Israelis or try
to convert them, a police spokesman said today.
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- According to the document, male workers cannot come into
contact with Israeli women - including prostitutes - become their lovers
or marry them, spokesman Rafi Yaffe said.
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- The spokesman said there was nothing illegal about the
requirement and no investigation had been opened against the company.
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- The labourers are also forbidden in the contract from
engaging in any religious or political activity. Those who violate the
agreement will be sent back to China at their own expense.
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- About 260,000 foreigners work in Israel, having replaced
Palestinian labourers during three years of fighting.
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- When the government first began to allow the entrance
of the foreign workers in the late 1990s, ministers warned of a "social
time bomb" caused by workers assimilating with Israelis.
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- More than half the workers are in the country illegally.
Israeli police have increased efforts to deport those working without permits
in light of high Israeli unemployment, which has reached 11 per cent in
recent months.
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- Israeli advocates of foreign workers - who come also
from Thailand, the Philippines and Romania - say they are held by employers
in nearly slave-like conditions, and their bosses frequently take their
passports and refuse to pay them.
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- This report appears on NEWS.com.au.
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- http://server-au.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/count?cid=au_newscorp_0
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