Our annual event for the struggle against human trafficking

Dear Friends,

For a long time, whenever I heard the word slavery, the images that came to mind were of colonial masters selling captured African slaves on the open market. But that was long before I understood that slavery is alive and well in our world today, it simply looks different.

Slavery can look like Maria, a 36 year old woman from the Philipines whom Hotline staff rescued from a neighborhood near Jerusalem earlier this year. She left her three children with her family in the Philippines believing that she was coming to work in Israel legally.

“From the moment I came to Israel, I knew something was wrong- the family immediately took my passport and my phone and I wasn’t allowed to call my family at all. I was afraid because I was all alone and I didn’t knew the language.”
“I was not allowed to go out of the house and constantly threatened that if I’ll go out, the immigration police will catch me and put me in jail or deport me. To guarantee that I stay inside the house they always kept the door locked when they went out.”

Eventually Maria managed to access Facebook. She began talking to an Israeli man who came and helped her escape. Through a google search, he found the Hotline. Our case worker met Maria, presented her case to the state authorities, gained a rehabilitation visa for her and arranged her a place in a residential shelter for victims of human trafficking. Our case worker will continue to assist Maria with her needs until she returns to the Philippines.

Domestic workers like Maria are not the only type of trafficking victim in Israel – there are women from Former Soviet Union countries bought to Israel to work in the sex industry, refugees who were captured, taken to the Sinai where they were tortured for ransom and then released by the Israel border, as well as workers in construction and agriculture that work under conditions of slavery.

The Hotline is here to make sure that Israeli authorities do not drag their feet on combating trafficking; that they identify victims and provide them with rehabilitative support rather than deport them like criminals and let actual criminals to continue trafficking in humans.

I look forward to seeing you there,
Reut Michaeli,
Executive Director

For tickets:
tixwise.co.il/he/hotlineevent2017
0505994823
event@hotline.org.il

Bronze tickets – 220nis (Regular tickets to a great show!)
Silver tickets – 500nis (Great seats and a generous donation)
Gold tickets – 1000nis (The best seats in the house and a special generous donation