Legal Aid is provided to all victims of human trafficking by all the Districts around the country, irrespective of whether the victims testify. According to the Law for the Prevention of Human Trafficking (Amendments of Laws) 5763 – 2003, The Legal Aid Law, 5732 - 1972 was amended to grant victims of human trafficking the right to receive legal aid in all proceedings under the Law of Entry to Israel 5712 – 1952 or civil actions that arise from such crimes, without examining the financial eligibility of the victim.
What is the Phenomenon of Human Trafficking?
The human trafficking phenomenon is one of global proportions, and occurs in secret, and the extent of which is difficult to estimate in numerical terms. The phenomenon expresses itself in the importing of persons from distressed countries to other countries in order to satisfy various needs including sexual exploitation, forced labor or forced services, engagement in prostitution, slavery or procedures that are similar to slavery and the extraction of organs from the body. The characteristics of the phenomenon are based on the use of illegal methods such as: use of force or the threat of the use of force or by other methods such as coercion, abduction, fraud or deception.
In many cases trafficking in humans includes the smuggling of humans from poverty stricken countries into wealthy countries when the process takes advantage of the gaps in the standard of living between poor and wealthy countries. The recruiters approach the victims, either by advertisements in newspapers or personally or through third parties, promising them opportunities of employment and earnings under reasonable conditions and causing them to believe that in the destination country they will be able to engage in respectable employment or they will have an opportunity of earning large sums of money and raising their standard of living in their poverty stricken countries. Some of the victims are recruited by manpower companies, the bait being the promise of high earnings, good conditions and the assurance of work within a limited period of time.
Trafficking victims are smuggled into the target country (by tourist visas, tourism abduction, fictitious marriages, illegal documents, illegal crossing of borders etc.) and once there they are kept under severe conditions, which include incarceration, threats, violence and confiscation of passports by their employers.
The harm caused to trafficking victims is particularly great in view of them being foreigners in the destination country. When they arrive illegally, the traffickers make sure that they instill in them the fear of making a complaint to the authorities. Even if they have arrived legally, they do not know the language and the local culture, a factor that deters them from exercising their rights. The smugglers persuade the victims that they owe the smugglers money for smuggling them into the destination country and this payment is collected through employment (a practice known as "debt bond"). The amount of the debt and the amount of work necessary in order to pay it is fixed by the employers, arbitrarily.
In the State of Israel the phenomenon of human trafficking is concentrated in the importation of women from source countries with the object of employing them in prostitution. Most of the victims of the trafficking are young women aged between 18 and 35, most of who are on the younger side of the spectrum. As a general rule, they are young women from a problematical family background, orphans, living in extreme poverty, and ill-educated etc. The young women are brought through transitional countries on their way to Israel and in many cases they are subjected to exploitation and even rape on the way. Upon their arrival they are put into brothels or apartments, and are unable to go out for several months on end, they undergo considerable humiliation, are kept in difficult conditions and are forced to work long hours.
Legal Aid Representation
Legal Aid is given by the Legal Aid District Offices countrywide, to all victims of human trafficking irrespective of whether or not they testify.
Under the Prevention of Human Trafficking Law (Legislative Amendments) 5763-2003, the Legal Aid Law, 5732-1972 (hereinafter- "the Legal Aid Law") was amended to the effect that the right to Legal Aid was granted to victims of human trafficking engaging in prostitution or ancillary offences in all matters pertaining to proceedings under the Entry Into Israel Law, 5712-1952 or Civil Proceedings pertaining to the commission of such offences, and this without them having to meet an economic eligibility test. In addition this amendment provided that Legal Aid can be applied in stages. In the initial stage the Legal Aid is applied to women staying in a "safe haven" shelter for trafficking victims but it was provided in the Law that the provision of Legal Aid must come to an end no later than August 1, 2006. Commencing from April 2006 aid is provided to all trafficking victims including women staying in custodial facilities.
In relation to this issue a distinction must be made between women staying in a shelter and those being kept in custodial facilities:
1. Women arriving at a shelter receive an explanation from the staff about their legal rights and the possibility of being represented by the Legal Aid Department and they also sign a document which confirms that they have received such an explanation. Representatives of the Legal Aid Department visit the shelter from time to time, and give lectures on the subject of the work of the Department and the assistance given to victims of trafficking in women as well as an explanation of their right to file a civil suit against their trafficker, as to the possibility of obtaining financial compensation from him and the entire rights to which they are entitled including assistance with an application for a Stay Visa.
2. Women held in custodial facilities. An inter-ministerial team that was established with the participation of the representatives of the Ministry of Justice, the Police and the Custodial Tribunal headed by Advocate Rachel Gershoni (the inter-ministerial coordinator of the War on Human Trafficking) has agreed that it would be proper and desirable that a social worker should be stationed in each custodial facility whose function would be inter alia, to locate victims of trafficking in woman and inform them of their rights including the receipt of Legal Aid in civil claims stemming from a trafficking offence and in proceedings under the Entry into Israel Law. It was also decided that Judges of the custodial tribunal, staff of custodial facilities, personnel of the relative organizations and field workers of the Immigration Administration would be charged with responsibility for locating victims of trafficking.
The Extension of Legal Aid to all Trafficking Victims.
On October 29, 2006, the Prohibition of Human Trafficking Law (Legislative Amendments), 5767-2006 came into force, which included amendments to the Penal Law and prescribed new offences of keeping under conditions of enslavement (Section 375A of the Penal Law) and human trafficking for additional purposes apart from engagement in prostitution the (Section 377A (a) of the Penal Law). The purposes of human trafficking under this new enactment also include, in addition to engaging in prostitution, the extracting of an organ from the body, giving birth to a child and giving it away, reduction to slavery, reduction to forced labor, reduction to participation in pornographic advertising or in a pornographic presentation and commission of a sexual offence. The Prohibition of Human Trafficking Law also includes, in addition to the amendment to the Penal Law, an indirect amendment to the Legal Aid Law which changed the offence section which relates to the offence of human trafficking for engaging in prostitution.
At the same time, a temporary provision was included in the Prohibition of Human Trafficking Law that broadened the application of the Legal Aid Law so as to also apply to victims of offences of keeping under conditions of enslavement and human trafficking.
From 2004 the Legal Aid Department has provided legal aid to about 170 victims of trafficking in women for engagement in prostitution in proceedings under the Entry into Israel Law as well as in civil suits. Likewise, aid was provided to about 25 victims of the offence of keeping under conditions of enslavement and human trafficking for other purposes, except for engaging in prostitution, such as enslavement and forced labor.
In a report of the activity of "Ma'agan" - a shelter established for trafficking victims and which is operated by the Ministry of Welfare, which relates to 2007, it was stated that 94% of the women who were referred to the shelter in 2007 received Legal Aid from the Department and that such assistance constitutes a layer in the ability of a woman to empower herself and claim the rights to which she is entitled, and it is a intensively powerful tool.
Also, reports of the American State Department that are submitted to Congress as part of a report on the War Against Human Trafficking throughout the world, point favorably to the actions taken by the Legal Aid Department to assist trafficking victims. For example, in a report published in 1/07 Legal Aid is numbered among the factors that have contributed to the finding that substantial progress has occurred on the war on trafficking in the State of Israel, which has contributed to our being removed from the watch list of states who are not doing enough in the fight to eradicate this phenomenon. In a Report published in 2008 a favorable mention was made of the amendment to the Legal Aid Law under which victims of "keeping under enslavement conditions" offences and human trafficking for enslavement and forced labor, are entitled to Legal Aid.
Apart from assistance in individual cases with representation, the Legal Aid Department regularly participates in inter-ministerial teams that are engaged in this field, in meetings of Parliamentary Committees in the field of the War on Human Trafficking, gives lectures in various forums about its activity in the field and the trafficking phenomenon (including in advanced study courses for Attorneys), participates in drafting proposed legislation on the subject, provides training courses for Lawyers working on its behalf and who represent trafficking victims and bring important cases in which they are acting, to the attention of the media.