Expenses on expulsion of illegal stays cost the state 130 million NIS annually, but the state doesn’t collect the debt, says a new report by the Israeli Immigration Policy Center. The Report was filed to Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked on Thursday, is based on data that was gathered from the authorities.
According the the Law of entering Israel, it is possible to admit expenses of expulsion on the illegal stay. However, according to the report, the law is not implemented at all in the rulings given in the courts, due to the lack of a procedure for collecting the costs of removal and maintenance.
The report shows that the cost of expelling more than 23,000 illegal residents who were expelled from the state between 2015 and 2020 reached NIS 337 million, to which must be added the cost of monthly maintenance of foreigners in custody, which amounted in 2019, to about NIS 69 million. This calculation originates from data from the Population and Immigration Authority, which show that the expulsion costs borne by the authority as part of the process of expelling illegal residents amount to tens of millions of shekels each year.
These expenses include flights, police escort, transportation, food, medical services, but do not include ancillary expenses, such as: conducting legal proceedings, detention of the illegal residents, wages, legal assistance, building maintenance, rent, etc. - assessed alone Tens of millions of shekels every year.
In the report, written by attorney Dr. Yona Cherki and Mr. Bar Pinto, they recommend that Minister Shaked exercise her authority and promote secondary legislation to establish explicit administrative guidelines regarding the collection of expulsion expenses, update the legal system regarding the new guidelines and even act to establish a system Collection of expenses in the countries of origin of foreigners.
The Center for Immigration Policy stated: "Every citizen who has caused damage to the PA [Population Authority] has had to deal with tough collection and sometimes with enforcement. It is precisely those who are here in violation of the law who receive a protective coat due to lack of regulation. It does not make sense They will not pay for the violation of the law. "