Life in Shadows for Invisible Workers Who Fear Deportation

Two prostitutes guard the street entrance and gangs of young men lurk, doing nothing in particular. One man kneels to retrieve drugs from his shoe and a fat rat waddles across the street.

The Neve Shaanan district of Tel Aviv provides accomodation for drug dealers, prostitutes and foreign workers. According to David from Nigeria, the only group that is hunted is the foreign workers.

Sitting nervously in the corner of a cafe, he watches as a van of the immigration police drives past. The two officers normally stop suspicious people and demand their papers. If they are not satisfied, they are put in the van which drives on until it is full.

At the police station, the police verify the identity of the individual and either let them go or deport them.

In response to high unemployment in 2002, the government of Ariel Sharon decided to send home 263,000 foreign workers: 10% of Israel's workforce.

The majority arrived after the outbreak of the first intifada in 1987 when Palestinians were prevented from entering Israel to work.

By last year a 460-strong squad of immigration police had repatriated 116,000 people, while unemployment rose to 10.7%.

David, 35, is one of the few African workers to have avoided detection. His wife and two children were arrested last year and deported, but he remained.

"I will stay here until I have provided for my children's education. That's why I am here - to sustain my family. I can't sleep easy or walk the streets normally, but what else can I do?"

David - not his real name - has a degree in drama and philosophy, but cleans houses in Israel for £3.50 an hour. In a good month he sends £300 to his extended family.

Aziz Diouf, 37, a now-legal migrant from Senegal, said the Neve Shaanan district was once a thriving commercial centre catering for non-Jewish migrants from the former Soviet Union, south Asia and Africa. Now landlords and shopkeepers are cutting their prices and going out of business.

"In this area you could not move for Africans, now there are virtually none. To avoid detection you have to be invisible," he said.

The police have targeted Africans, Indians and South Americans because they stand out from the crowd. "There are thousands of new illegal Russian immigrants from the Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova. They blend in. With other groups like the Filipinos, if they arrest 20, they might find one who is illegal so they don't bother."

Diouf, who writes about foreign workers for an Israeli weekly newspaper, said that the police initially used heavy-handed tactics. Now, they mainly rely on informers who are themselves illegal immigrants.

The crackdown on immigrants has not been popular in Israel. Even the rightwing Jerusalem Post described it as a disgrace and cited a Jewish commandment from the Book of Deuteronomy.

"Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates."

The jobs they do are not coveted by Israelis and the policy is seen as state aid for a people-trafficking industry which one former interior minister said had a turnover of £1.5 bn. A US state department report said immigrants to Israel can pay as much for £6,000 for the privilege.

If the worker breaks a contract, or the contract expires, they become illegal. Meanwhile, a workers' rights group claimed 31,000 new foreign workers arrived in Israel in 2003.

David's furtive life continues. Even his Saturday visits to church are loaded with danger as police have been known to arrest workers leaving a service.

"Even when you are praising your God you have to look around you," he said.