The spokesperson said that families under threat of deportation number less than 2,000 individuals, including more than 1,000 children, the oldest of whom is 16.
“We want citizenship for the kids that were born here and for their parents, who came here legally, who have really served the people of this country,” the spokesperson said.
A Filipino caretaker at a promenade in Tel Aviv. (photo credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90)
As of December 2020, 55,705 foreign careworkers resided legally in Israel, according to government statistics (in Hebrew), with 13,251 doing so illegally. Of the legal ones, the main nationalities were Filipino (36%), Indian (24%) and Moldovan (13%).
From 2017 to 2019, 409 Filipinos were deported, with just 37 in 2020, the coronavirus year. During those same four years, 869 left “of their own accord.”