{"id":4857,"date":"2025-03-20T08:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T06:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/assaf.org.il\/?p=4857"},"modified":"2025-08-20T08:21:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T06:21:28","slug":"women-refugees-in-israel-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/assaf.org.il\/en\/women-refugees-in-israel-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Refugees in Israel 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/assaf.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Women-Refugees-in-Israel-2025-1.pdf\">Women Refugees in Israel 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong><u>March 2025<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Acknowledgements and credits:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Writing and editing: Hadar Pesya Aviel<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Graphic Design: Amir Reuveni<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">English Translation: Marc Marcus<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Thank you to:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Anat Goldschmid, a social work student who interned at ASSAF<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And to all the women, refugees and social workers quoted in the report, who agreed to share their experiences, wisdom and strength.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Section 1 \u2013\u00a0 Introduction. Exposed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">There are approximately 4,296 women asylum seekers and refugees from Africa in Israel today, most of whom have been living here for about two decades. 3,596 of them are of Eritrean origin (including girls), who make up 22% of the Eritrean community in Israel. In addition, there are approximately 125 women of Sudanese origin (including girls), 474 women of Ethiopian origin, and 101 women of Congolese origin. In the past three years, approximately 15,216 Ukrainian women refugees (including girls) have also arrived in Israel, fleeing the horror of war in their country.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">All of these approximately 19,500 women fled their countries due to life-threatening dangers, &#8211; oppressive regimes and dictators, occupation and invasion by enemy states, brutal atrocities, and more. Some had no choice but to leave behind families, including siblings, parents, and children. Many of the Eritrean women are also survivors of torture and trafficking in the Sinai torture camps.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Israel acknowledges the danger to the lives of these individuals if they are returned to their countries of origin and, accordingly, grants them collective protection from deportation.<\/strong> In other words, their stay in Israel is legal. However, <strong>aside from the right to remain<\/strong>, they are denied nearly all other rights. <strong>They are stripped of basic social protections and security, and subjected daily to discriminatory and abusive treatment by State authorities. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It is difficult to imagine the life of a woman who, for years, has been systematically denied even the most basic social and health safety net &#8211; <strong>such as national insurance benefits, state health coverage, or rental assistance in times of crisis.<\/strong> For example:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8211; An elderly woman, unable to work and support herself, is forced to live on the street because she does not receive an old-age pension.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8211; A woman with a disability or illness that prevents her from working &#8211; remains helpless, without physical assistance and without a disability pension, since she is not entitled to occupational disability compensation.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8211; A single mother with a child with a disability, who requires medical treatment is not entitled to a disabled child stipend that would provide for their basic needs-, even though she has lost the ability to work because she is completely absorbed in caring for her son.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">While dealing with past traumas, the women are also forced to live on the margins of Israeli society, in extreme poverty, and more exposed than any Israeli citizen (male or female) to exploitation and harm on a daily basis. A new study by ASSAF and the Adva Center shows that the phenomenon of poverty among the refugee community in Israel is clearly gender-based. The poverty rate for women refugees is twice that of men, reaching 64% and 33% respectively (the respondent sample included over 250 male and female refugees and displaced persons in Israel). According to existing data regarding women from different countries of origin, Ukrainian women are poorer than Eritrean women &#8211; approximately 79% of Ukrainians are poor, as compared to about 64% of the Eritreans. Further examination by origin reveals that the situation of Ukrainian women refugees is better in terms of food security, but worse in terms of poverty and housing, as will be detailed below.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The study points to a disturbing statistic &#8211; 90% of Eritrean women suffer from food insecurity, as detailed below, i.e. only 10% of Eritrean women living in Israel are food-secure. Approximately 30% of them live in &#8220;moderate&#8221; food insecurity and about 60% live in severe food insecurity (these findings are consistent with a survey conducted during the COVID-19 crisis, which found that about 85% of refugees in Israel suffer from food insecurity). Among Ukrainian women, approximately 70% live in food insecurity &#8211; about 50% in moderate food insecurity and 20% in severe food insecurity. That is, only about 30% of them live in food security. In this difficult reality:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;Many women face daily challenges in nourishing themselves and their children. Many of those who contact ASSAF come to request assistance with food and infant formula (a breast milk substitute for babies). Some are forced to forgo meals so as to leave food for the children&#8221; (Miryam Mayer, Social worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Some of these women are single mothers, some have physical disabilities and\/or are chronically ill, or struggling with mental health issues, including the effects of trauma and prolonged stress, or having to deal with any number of other problems. Despite all this, despite their being among the most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, they and their families are not entitled to adequate health and welfare services, National Insurance benefits, rental assistance, or official work permits &#8211; basic rights without which it is difficult to survive.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Among these women, only victims of domestic violence are entitled to receive services upon arrival at the shelter (a situation that, in and of itself, exists only because of successful battles fought by ASSAF and partner organizations). But many times, as will be explained later, these services are discontinued due to bureaucratic obstacles once the women leave the shelters and return to their lives, where no professional support is available. \u00a0\u00a0Apart from assistance with rent, they do not receive any actual aid. Without support, many of these women are forced to return to the cycle of violence, in order to support their children and survive.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For almost two decades, the question has remained unanswered: When will the State of Israel acknowledge the women refugees who have been living in its territory for years? &#8211; This raises additional questions: When will the State of Israel begin to act in accordance with international treaties which it has signed (and ratified) &#8211; primarily the Refugee Convention (1951), as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)? When will the State of Israel act in accordance with rights that it itself has enshrined in its basic laws, such as the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This report focuses primarily on women refugees from Africa, who have been living in Israel for about twenty years, but also relates to the Ukrainian refugees who have been living here for approximately three years. Whether these are women who arrived in the past or those who will arrive in the future &#8211; they are fleeing from their countries against a backdrop of life-threatening situations, in circumstances beyond their control, leading to devastating consequences: life without status, recognition, or a basic social safety net. This is the daily reality of women from Eritrea and Sudan, who will soon enter their third decade of life in Israel, and unfortunately, it is also the daily reality of Ukrainian women, who have been living in Israel for about three years, and it needs to be corrected immediately.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><u>Two unequivocal conclusions emerge from this report:<\/u><\/p>\n<ol dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>Women who have been living in Israel for approximately twenty years without viable residential visas should be given refugee status. After nearly two decades of living here legally, the State of Israel must fairly examine their individual asylum applications and recognize them as refugees without delay, as it has pledged to do in the Refugee Convention. Refugee status will allow them the basic minimum conditions required to work and lead a dignified life, including access to all the necessary health and social security services. Accordingly:<\/li>\n<li>These women must be given a full social package that includes essential benefits, National Insurance benefits (disability benefits, disabled child benefits, alimony), national health insurance, rental assistance (for those who meet the economic criteria as per the regulations of the Ministry of Housing), and full social services. This is the case for the Eritrean and Sudanese refugees, who have been living in Israel for nearly two decades, and the same is true for the Ukrainian refugees (who are already descending into poverty, as will be described in this report).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Section 2 &#8211; To achieve a living wage, to work<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The residence permit allotted to African women refugees (a permit under Section 2A5 of the Entry into Israel Law) is a temporary permit that requires frequent renewal and does not serve as a formal work permit, although their employment is permitted. The vague policy regarding their employment creates fertile ground for trafficking and exploitation by their employers. They often work in physical jobs, such as cleaning, so if their health or fitness does not allow them to perform physical work, they will be left without employment. In addition, these jobs usually have limited potential for providing a living wage.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Those who want to develop professionally and economically often reach a dead end: many occupations that require education, professional licensing or a driver&#8217;s license are closed to them. They cannot work as professional nurses, teachers, kindergarten teachers, social workers, engineers, and in many other professions. Outstanding young women who want to break through the glass ceiling and become architects, nurses, teachers, and more, thereby contributing to Israeli society, apply for higher education but repeatedly encounter licensing barriers that confine them to jobs such as store clerks or cleaners.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Furthermore, the US State Department&#8217;s 2024 annual Trafficking in Persons Report, for the fourth year in a row, ranked Israel in Tier 2 (out of 3) in its Combating Human Trafficking Index. The report noted that the lack of examination of asylum applications leaves refugees without social rights and makes them vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation, especially women who are at increased risk of sex trafficking. Both the latest (2024) and previous (2023) US State Department Trafficking in Persons Reports stated that the fact that Israel does not review asylum applications of women refugees (including those of potential trafficking victims), along with the economic hardship these women experience, increases the vulnerability of women refugees in Israel to trafficking and survival prostitution.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">An incident related by social worker Nitsan Feldstein, the Youth Manager at the ASSAF in 2023, offers a glimpse of the reality of these women:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;An ASSAF volunteer and a 15-year-old boy were playing ball in one of the playgrounds in Neve Sha&#8217;anan. The ball was thrown across the road. The boy went to get the ball and saw a 3-year-old girl crying on the sidewalk across the street, where there is a brothel and a drug den, but also residential buildings. The boy approached the girl and asked her, &#8216;What&#8217;s going on?&#8217; but she didn\u2019t reply. After several attempts, the boy and the volunteer found the mother, who was working at a bar on a parallel street. The mother left the bar and took the youngster home (where her two older brothers were) and then returned to the bar. Mothers from the community who work at the bar in the evening are often also involved in prostitution. This is a kind of prostitution that is different from what we are familiar with. It is about a single waitress, in a men-only bar, who at the end of the evening will &#8216;give favors,&#8217; and in return she may receive money, or she may receive a beating&#8221; (Nitsan Feldstein, Social worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Without a permanent and stable source of income that can ensure the survival of her family, a woman refugee is forced to take the risk of working in the &#8220;bar.&#8221; Another woman that we know of, and her three children, are at risk of finding themselves on the street, unable to pay rent. Mothers often come to ASSAF who are threatened with being evicted from their homes because they have had difficulty paying rent in recent months as a result of financial hardships, through no fault of their own, but rather a result of external occurrences (such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the war, or some similar life circumstance). Many of these women can only choose between one bad solution or another, in order to minimize the harm to their children as much as possible, even if it means that they themselves are harmed.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The shame and stigma associated with prostitution take on an added dimension in the Eritrean community, which is characterized by its conservatism. There, most of the survival prostitution takes place in the dark, as part of the &#8220;routine of life,&#8221; in the women\u2019s homes or workplaces. Many incidents of survival prostitution take place in private apartments, rather than in brothels, and are therefore more difficult to identify.<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;It is extremely taboo. Even just telling me about it is very, very difficult, and many times nothing explicit is ever said. It stays within the walls of the house. It is not put into words, not in conversation&#8221; (Abigail Pinto, Social Worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In recent years, and especially against the backdrop of the dramatic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing war, we in ASSAF and in partner aid organizations have seen an increase in the number of women refugees who are lapsing into survival prostitution. Some of them live with men for whom they are forced to help with the housework and provide sex in exchange for housing. Others work in prostitution within the framework of &#8220;hamaras&#8221; &#8211; pubs that serve as a meeting place mainly for men. Most of the women employed there as hostesses and waitresses are Eritrean refugees. Many of them are single parents. Some of them provide prostitution services to men who are referred to them from the hamara in discreet apartments near the hamara, in hotels or in their own homes. All the women working in the hamaras suffer from a stigma within their community under the presumption that they are engaged in prostitution. Other women refugees engage in prostitution in their own apartments. A small number of women engage in prostitution in brothels and discreet apartments, controlled by Israeli pimps.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In recent years, a welcome trend has begun that is enabling the women refugees to go beyond the boundaries of working only as cleaning women, with some African refugees finding employment as kindergarten assistants in Tel Aviv and other cities. However, this trend may be cut short in light of bureaucratic failures related to the enactment of the &#8220;Law to Prevent the Employment of Those Convicted of Violence Against Children and the Vulnerable in Certain Institutions, 2023,&#8221; which went into force on August 2, 2024. Unlike the &#8220;Law to Prevent the Employment of Sex Offenders in Certain Institutions, 2021,&#8221; which applied the requirement to present a certificate of no conviction for sex offenses only to men (and also limits the employment options of male refugees, but that issue is not within the scope of this report), the 2023 law requires that both women and men who work with children up to the age of 6 present the said certificate. The requirement that candidates who wish to work with vulnerable populations present proof of having no record of sex or violent offenses is, in and of itself, welcome. However, when it comes to refugees, it is a major hindrance to finding significant work, as for years the police have refused to consider them the long-awaited permits on various pretexts. Now refugees who have already managed to find work as assistants in kindergartens and daycare centers are being threatened with the prospect of dismissal.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Life with a 2A5 visa is a complicated bureaucratic maze, with many &#8220;no entry&#8221; signs, which significantly limit the ability to earn a living, rehabilitate and strengthen oneself. The Ministry of the Interior should grant residency to women refugees who have lived here for many years. Granting residency status will remove most of the many bureaucratic barriers facing them and will allow them to live in dignity until they either achieve a permanent status or until they are allowed to leave the country safely and with dignity. Granting status is intended not only to ease bureaucratic barriers but also to enable a life in dignity, with basic rights to health and well-being, as will be explained later.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Section 3 &#8211; Housing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Due to the extreme poverty of many women refugees, they live in inadequate or unstable housing conditions. According to new research by ASSAF and the Adva Center, Eritrean women&#8217;s housing expenses account for 54% of their total income, while Ukrainian women&#8217;s housing expenses account for 70% of their total income. Difficulties in finding housing at rents that are realistic relative to their income force them to live in conditions that place them and their children at increased risk &#8211; whether in terms of health, security, or personal safety.<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;The apartments are often plagued by mold, air pollution, insects and pests, substandard sewage, lack of insulation, close proximity to major roads, and even substandard electrical systems that harm the tenants. In apartments that have been divided into smaller individual living spaces with the same electrical panel, there are many power outages [&#8230;] These are tiny apartments, which in some cases were not intended for living, perhaps they were previously a shop, a warehouse, or a larger apartment that was divided. In some cases, these are apartments which measure a mere 15 square meters (Yehudit Ilani, Social worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Difficulties in finding appropriate housing force many women and families to live in very crowded conditions, and to share the living space with other people &#8211; relatives, couples, other single women and men from the community. The high density creates difficult living conditions, which are not suitable for the women or for their children:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;In many cases several older children sleep together in one bed, or together with the mother, which is simply not right in terms of their developmental stage&#8221; (Abigail Pinto, Social Worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The difficulty in finding adequate housing and the lack of a safe space of their own expose women and their children to increased harm at the hands of other tenants, and in many cases they unwillingly become hostages of the landlord.<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;The poorer the woman, the worse the condition of the apartment will be &#8211; which increases the temptation to move in with a person who does not necessarily have her best interests at heart&#8221; (Yehudit Ilani, Social worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;If a woman says that she doesn\u2019t work and she lives with three men, we suspect she is a victim of survival prostitution&#8221; (Talia Dorit Batya Hartman, Social worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Likewise, global rental payment systems, i.e. one monthly payment to the landlord that includes the rent and associated bills such as water, electricity and property taxes, render the property tax discount meaningless for women who are entitled to it.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In recent years, there has been one positive development, and that is, as previously mentioned, the eligibility of women who are victims of violence to receive rental assistance. However, in most cases this assistance is not actually received, for various reasons, including bureaucratic difficulties that prevent the refugees from accessing the aid. More often than not, the care and assistance that they receive is terminated when they leave the shelter. Israeli women are eligible for rental assistance in accordance with criteria set by Ministry of Housing regulations. This assistance can be as much as 1,100 NIS per month. Israeli single-parent women with low incomes usually meet these criteria and receive assistance. Women refugees, on the other hand, who certainly meet the criteria, are not eligible for it. As of the publication of this report, the Ministry of Housing provides rental assistance to women refugees who are victims of violence (and refugees who are single mothers of a child with Israeli citizenship, the son\/daughter of an Israeli father), but this is only the result of successful legal battles waged by ASSAF and the Refugee Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University &#8211;\u00a0 and, as already noted, this assistance is not always received in practice due to various bureaucratic obstacles.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/adva.org\/en\/women-violence-housing\/\">A report by the Adva Center regarding housing assistance for women victims of violence<\/a>, released in November 2024, indicates that domestic violence is a major cause of housing insecurity for women and their children. Women who are victims of domestic violence often suffer from being cut off from financial resources by their abusive partners, which prevents them from obtaining safe housing. For women who suffer from domestic violence, the lack of available, adequate, and affordable housing forces them to face an impossible choice: to remain in the cycle of violence or to remain homeless. For many women, escaping violence means losing their home and place to live. Women who have experienced domestic violence often have to bear heavy costs, including financing the care of their own and their children\u2019s health care, physical, social, and emotional needs, and in order to do so, they must secure an income that will allow them to live independently of the violent man, ensure the well-being of their children, and finance the maintenance of their current or new home. This is especially true for women refugees, who are, in any case, stripped of all social support.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In order to afford women and their children adequate housing without increased exposure to risks, the State must cease its unacceptable discriminatory practices, and provide them (and especially those who have lived in Israel for years) with rental assistance according to the criteria set by the Ministry of Housing, under which this assistance is provided to all residents in general, and to single mothers in particular.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Section 4 &#8211; To heal, to function<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><u>4a. Physical health<\/u><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Israel does not apply the National Health Insurance Law to refugees in Israel, so they do not have access to public health services, except in extreme life-threatening cases. Even when these women have serious medical conditions (such as cancer, heart\/liver\/kidney disease), they are forced to allow their condition to deteriorate to the point where they will receive (only) stabilizing treatment in the emergency room. After initial stabilization, they will be released to deal with the disease without further treatment, monitoring or medication, and with a financial debt to the hospital that they cannot pay. In other words, these women do not receive medication, cannot undergo routine tests and monitoring, and the possibility of performing surgeries and rehabilitation that may save them and prevent their condition from worsening is denied to them.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">According to new health insurance regulations issued in June 2020, refugees who are citizens of Eritrea, Sudan, and Ukraine are eligible for health insurance, but the regulations apply only to minors and those aged 61 and over. Everyone else (aged 18-60) is not eligible. As a result, the regulations exclude the vast majority of the refugees, and for many of those who are eligible, the cost of the insurance is <strong>itself a prohibitive barrier<\/strong><strong>,<\/strong> as will be explained later.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Women who are employed (legally) are eligible for private health insurance from their employer. The services covered by this insurance are limited and do not include coverage for pre-existing health conditions (i.e. conditions diagnosed before registration for insurance), and do not allow for <strong>insurance continuity after dismissal<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong> Even more importantly, the jobs available to these women do not always provide them with private health insurance, as many of them are engaged in temporary, or precarious work that is not regulated by law.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Needless to say, women who have lost their earning capacity due to disability, illness, accidents, etc., are completely deprived of the possibility of receiving health insurance (since they cannot work and be insured by their employer), precisely when they need it most. The jobs available to refugees in Israel often involve considerable physical effort over many hours, so even a mild or moderate disability may completely eliminate the possibility of working and earning a living. It follows that it is precisely the most vulnerable women, who are unable to integrate into the types of jobs available to them, who are left without health insurance at all. For example:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>S. and G., two women in their 30s (who are receiving counsel from ASSAF), who had been working and living independently, were diagnosed with cancer and began chemotherapy treatments. In the absence of State Health Insurance, they were forced to continue working during the treatments (in physical labor), just to ensure the continuation of their private insurance, so that the treatments would not be interrupted. S. and G., who may not be able to continue in their current jobs while coping with the disease, are more exposed than ever to abusive employment, exploitation and living on the streets; and all this just because they became ill.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Today, the State operates three public clinics serving refugees from Eritrea and Sudan: &#8220;Bikur-Rofeh&#8221; (formerly &#8220;Terem&#8221;), &#8220;Yachad&#8221; (formerly &#8220;Ruth&#8221;) and &#8220;Derech&#8221; for recognized torture survivors. The first provides primarily paid primary care and diagnostic services and is located in Holon; the second provides psychiatric services (with a long waiting list) and is located in Tel Aviv; the third, which opened in the beginning of 2025, provides psychiatric services to torture survivors from Sinai, who have been recognized as such by the Ministry of Health, and is also located in Tel Aviv. These clinics provide limited health services, have long waiting lists, and are generally inaccessible to refugee populations living outside the Tel Aviv area. One of the most important services previously offered at the &#8220;Terem&#8221; clinic\u2014formerly a key provider of healthcare to refugees and undocumented individuals\u2014was a women&#8217;s clinic where doctors and technicians volunteered to provide gynecological counseling, pregnancy monitoring, and ultrasound examinations. There was also a contraceptive clinic at &#8220;Terem&#8221; which distributed donated contraceptives; physical accompaniment services and emotional support were offered in cases of pregnancy terminations; blood tests related to pregnancy terminations were performed and provided free of charge; and blood tests for the purpose of pregnancy monitoring were offered at subsidized prices. In addition, the Health Bureau provided pertussis vaccines which were given to pregnant patients, as well as prescriptions and injections of anti-D vaccines and iron infusions in cases of anemia.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Once it became clear that the current Bikur-Rofeh clinic would not be a women&#8217;s clinic, efforts were made to provide as many of these services as possible in the Open Clinic of the Physicians for Human Rights Association in Jaffa, in order to answer the needs of the many women who need them. Despite these efforts, the burden on the aforementioned clinic remains heavy due to the lack of alternative frameworks, leaving many without adequate care The cancellation of services at the &#8220;Terem&#8221; women&#8217;s clinic has caused significant harm to women, fetuses, and newborns; therefore, Bikur-Rofeh should immediately establish a women&#8217;s clinic following this model.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In practice, there are no adequate solutions for women with high-risk pregnancies, including those with gestational diabetes. They are referred to high-risk pregnancy units in hospitals but must pay for these follow-ups out of pocket. Most refugee women cannot afford these fees and therefore go without follow-up care until life-threatening complications arise. As a result, many women arrive at the delivery room without any prenatal follow-up or even an understanding of how the birth should proceed.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Another obstacle to obtaining health insurance is the high cost set by the new health regulations\u2014140 NIS per month for each child and 320 NIS per month for each elderly person. Many of the women refugees cannot afford that expenditure. In addition, while the previous health plan for statusless children (&#8220;Meuhedet Arrangement&#8221;) included a family payment ceiling for health insurance (ensuring that the total monthly expenditure for children in a given family did not exceed 240 NIS), as per the new regulations there is no such ceiling, and the monthly expenditure increases proportionally with the number of children in the family (140 NIS multiplied by the number of children). Even before the aforementioned amendment raised insurance rates, single mothers were unable to afford the insurance payments of the &#8220;Meuhedet Arrangement&#8221;, and so they accumulated debts for medical care for their children. Now their situation, and the situation of their children, has worsened. It is estimated that the increase in the monthly payment, and especially the cancellation of the family payment ceiling, will leave many children (even more than before the amendment of the regulations) without health insurance. In addition, at the age of 18 girls lose their insurance coverage, even if they are still in school or other educational programs,<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As for Ukrainian citizens (mainly women refugees and their children), until now the State has provided limited health services under the Ministry of Social Affairs\u2019 \u201cTzav-Hashaa\u201d services. The government used to renew these services every few months, always at the last possible moment and usually only following a legal petition. However, these health services were available only for those aged 60+, and the health services provided to other age groups through \u201cTerem\u201d clinics were more limited. If that were not enough, Ukrainian citizens who entered Israel before the start of the war in Ukraine were not entitled to medical services at all, and as of the publication of this report they are still completely excluded from receiving medical services.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Moreover, in their encounter with the medical establishment, that is, the public health system, the women face many additional challenges such as racism, condescension, and exclusion by some professionals; \u00a0this, in addition to the linguistic and cultural gaps that cause communication difficulties between the women and the caregivers.<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;When I got to the delivery room, they wanted to give me an injection in my back (epidural). I didn&#8217;t understand what it was. I said I didn&#8217;t want it. It&#8217;s because I had no guidance, I didn&#8217;t know what it was. I suffered until the end. &#8230; After the birth, they gave me something for pain and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I didn&#8217;t know where my child was.&#8221; (N., woman refugee from Eritrea and mother in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">4b. Mental health<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The lack of stability, ongoing distress, traumatic past (the difficult events they experienced in their countries of origin and on the journey to Israel), along with many years of lack of status and rights &#8211; are triggers for the onset of mental illness issues or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among the women. Unlike the need to deal with single traumatic events, refugees deal with ongoing trauma that results from cumulative traumatic events before migration, during migration, and within the host country.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In Israel, trauma in the refugee and asylum-seeking community is defined as &#8220;persistent trauma,&#8221; caused by ongoing oppression and its psychological impact. Studies show high rates of mental disorders among refugees and asylum seekers in Western countries, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD, with the prevalence of PTSD being 10 times higher than that of the local population of the same age. In addition, refugees and asylum seekers who have experienced trauma in their countries of origin are more vulnerable to stress in the host countries than immigrants without a traumatic background.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In the past few years (including the COVID-19 pandemic and the war) the situation of many women has worsened. The Hamas attack on October 7 and the war that broke out in its wake did not differentiate between populations. There were deaths and injuries also among the refugees, and the entire community experienced a flood of traumas and difficult memories. Often, these women find themselves in Israel without family and social support and are forced to cope alone.<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;There are women who before the COVID-19 pandemic had a more stable job or a more secure life, and for some women COVID-19 was a disruptive element that was difficult to recover from, certainly for women with post-traumatic, depressive tendencies, etc.; being locked up at home intensified something they already had a tendency towards&#8221; (Abigail Pinto, Social Worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;For my wife, it brought back memories from the past, she can&#8217;t function and doesn&#8217;t sleep at night. My daughters are also afraid and don&#8217;t leave the house,&#8221; says Mebartom Gidai Barha, an Eritrean refugee, who evacuated from Ashkelon with his wife and daughters after a direct rocket hit to their apartment. They were forced to move to a friend&#8217;s apartment in the center of the country because they were not eligible for assistance in evacuating from their hometown, and they slept on mattresses on the floor until ASSAF and partner organizations found them another apartment in the center of Israel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Even in January 2025, with the implementation of the agreement to rescue and return the abductees taken by Hamas to Gaza, ASSAF&#8217;s social worker Shai Laden noted that many clients were experiencing anxiety, emotional turmoil, and feeling overwhelmed. Women who have children in Eritrea (or whose children are lost in various countries) spoke of intense longing, and pointed out the disparity between the joy over the return of the abductees and the flood of trauma that it \u00a0brings upon them: first, reminding them of their imprisonment in Sinai, and secondly, highlighting the painful reality that the State will not help them reconnect with their children.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For Ukrainian women living in Israel, the war in Israel has worsened their mental state and intensified their humanitarian challenges. In addition, the war has diverted world attention from the Russian invasion of Ukraine (to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict), leaving them largely to cope on their own.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Although most women refugees live in poverty and food insecurity, and deal with past traumas, they do not receive the mental health services that the State offers to Israeli women. Without health insurance, women refugees also do not have access to mental health services. Meanwhile, the mental health support that is usually provided to Israeli women through the National health package &#8211; which includes psychotherapy and psychiatric medications &#8211; is unavailable to them. Similarly, they are denied access to the National Insurance rehabilitation service package (the package includes support programs and services in various areas such as housing, employment, studies and leisure) and are not eligible for National Insurance stipends.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The only mental health clinic that the state operates for refugees from Eritrea and Sudan &#8211; the &#8220;Yachad&#8221; clinic (formerly &#8220;Ruth&#8221;) &#8211; cannot provide services to everyone who needs psychiatric and psychological assistance. &#8220;Yachad&#8221;, as mentioned, provides psychiatric services and is located in Tel Aviv; the clinic provides limited services and the waiting list for it is long, making it insufficiently accessible to the community.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">To conclude this chapter, the National Health Insurance Law should be applied to refugee communities in Israel, so that women and their children will be entitled to all the necessary health services. In this way, women will have regular access to medical care in the community, there will be fewer occurrences of medical deterioration that require expensive and complex hospitalizations, and the burden on emergency rooms will be reduced. In addition, these women should be included not only in the National health package, but also allowed to receive National Insurance stipends and included in the Rehabilitation of the Mentally Disabled in the Community Law &#8211; which will be discussed in the following section:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Section 5 &#8211; Support and rehabilitation in the community &#8211; National Insurance benefits and social services<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Women refugees in Israel, even if they meet all eligibility criteria, are not eligible for most benefits. They do not receive old-age, disability, nursing care, income support, alimony, or disabled child benefits, and more, nor do they receive unemployment benefits in the event of job dismissal or in other circumstances that establish entitlement to unemployment benefits. The consequences of not being eligible for unemployment benefits are especially dramatic in times of crisis. Those who lose their livelihood are left without entitlement to unemployment benefits and even without health insurance, severance pay, or or any other form of income support or financial assistance. Excluded from all institutional assistance, they and their families are left without any sources of income. The benefits to which they are entitled are maternity benefits and work accident benefits (if they are employed and their employer ensures they are insured with private medical insurance).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In addition to the lack of National Insurance benefits, women refugees are also not entitled to most of the welfare and social security services. Although the Ministry of Social Affairs has allocated a limited number of positions (relative to the size of the population) to social services departments in the relevant local authorities, in practice social workers are limited in their ability to provide support to members of the community, since the welfare services package is largely unavailable to them (except for victims of domestic violence), as will be expanded later.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In recent years, the welfare services provided to women refugees in Israel have been expanded slightly, but they only provide out-of-home placements (as opposed to the global trend that supports providing care in the community), and are provided only to three marginal groups that face a grave and immediate danger: women victims of domestic violence, women with disabilities, and street dwellers. In practice, even these placements are very difficult to access due to various obstacles, primarily the lack of health insurance. As stated above, although women who are recognized as victims of violence are entitled to continued support in the community when they leave the shelter, women refugees have difficulty accessing this assistance, and treatment is usually discontinued upon their departure.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In any case, most vulnerable women refugees are in need of social services in the community, not out-of-home placement in institutions. The &#8220;de-institutionalization&#8221; approach, according to which one should strive to integrate people with disabilities into the community by providing support and rehabilitation services that will allow them to live independent and autonomous lives, is evidence-based and is the widely accepted therapeutic approach in the Western world. It is also the approach that was expressed both in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which Israel is a signatory, and in the Israeli Welfare Services for People with Disabilities Law, which was enacted in June 2022. This law is intended to promote the right of people with disabilities to autonomous and independent lives in the community, as well as to reduce the number of referrals.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This policy of providing solutions only for marginalized populations, with limited services in the community, is inconsistent with professional recommendations as well as international conventions to which Israel is committed, and it undermines efforts to maintain sustainable rehabilitation processes. Community-based solutions, including rehabilitation processes through supported employment, day centers for people with severe disabilities, limited financial assistance, counseling and treatment for parents and children, assistance in coping with addictions, and others, may reduce the need for more expensive emergency solutions, save costs for the State, and especially help those in need lead independent lives in the community as much as possible.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In addition, there are significant disparities between the Ministry of Social Affairs&#8217; policy and its actual implementation: First, the processing of applications for out-of-home placements may take many months and often comes to nothing. Second, out-of-home frameworks require that residents have medical insurance, and as described above, many women do not have medical insurance. Third, most of the institutions offered to women refugees with disabilities do not meet their needs: women are often placed in institutions for people with physical disabilities or substance use disorders, even though most of them are not invalids, nor are they addicts. Out-of-home placement institutions are not designed to provide long-term solutions, nor do they provide women refugees with medical and paramedical care due to their lack of health insurance. As a result, women refugees with disabilities placed in these institutions do not receive any rehabilitation, but rather, at best, a bed and food.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It should be noted that local authorities can and should play an important role in providing assistance to the community living in their midst, but as of today they do not receive adequate funding to do so. Only strong, stable local authorities, such as Tel Aviv, can independently provide and initiate more comprehensive social services for the refugee and asylum-seeker communities (through &#8220;Mesilah&#8221;). Moreover, as of today there are a number of local authorities that categorically refuse, apparently due to deep institutional racism, to provide services to the refugee community (even though some of the services are critical to the survival of some refugees). It follows that particularly vulnerable women &#8211; single mothers, women with disabilities, torture survivors, survivors of trafficking, the elderly, and more &#8211; do not receive adequate institutional support. The limited assistance that Ukrainian refugees received upon their arrival in the country, under the Ministry of Social Affairs\u2019 \u201cTzav-Hashaa\u201d services, has also been discontinued.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In conclusion, the State must make the rehabilitation and economic assistance mechanisms of National Insurance benefits available to these women. The State also must ensure that the doors of the social services departments of the local authorities will be open to the women refugees to enable those who are in need to receive all the assistance and support they need within the community.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The welfare services provided to refugees in Israel are almost exclusively based on out-of-home support, while most of them need community-based services, which are much more effective and significantly cheaper than the costs of placement in out-of-home frameworks. In the absence of welfare and health rights, and without access to a variety of community support services within the home, women with disabilities or serious and chronic illnesses are forced to accept out-of-home placement in an institution, which in most cases is not adapted to their needs and even causes their condition to deteriorate. It is not without reason that some of them either refuse to enter those institutions or leave them after a short time.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Section 6: Single mothers and the undermining of the family unit<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;This is not what I wanted, but I wish for my children to have a different future, not my future&#8221; (C., mother and refugee in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><u>6a. The family unit<\/u><\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;Many single mother applicants describe having a serious concern about who will take care of the children if something happens to them. The reasons for that concern is that there is no father in the picture, the extended family is in Eritrea, and there is a great fear that &#8216;everything is on me'&#8221; (Tahal Weber, Social worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The refugee experience causes much turmoil within the family unit, and it is estimated that more than half of refugee mothers (mainly from African countries) are single mothers. Some have been abandoned, while others lost their partners in their country of origin or during the refugee journey. In other cases, the domestic stability broke down under the pressure that the State exerts on the refugees. Refugee communities face migration-related challenges: adaptation difficulties, cultural gaps, changes in gender structures and the undermining of traditional roles, <strong>which shifts the family power dynamic. These occur alongside<\/strong> difficulties unique to refugees, such as separation as the result of persecution in the country of origin (for example, the persecution of women whose relatives are suspected by the Eritrean government of being &#8220;traitors&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Often, the breakup of the family leaves the women destitute, completely cut off from the father of the family, forcing them to raise and support their children alone. All this, while they are without legal status and without government support. As mentioned, single refugee mothers are not entitled to the assistance that single mothers who are not refugees receive from the State, which only increases their distress and deepens their poverty.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The traumas of women refugees &#8211; whether resulting from their home countries, the journey to Israel, or torture in Sinai &#8211; are often rooted in their family unit, and have been integral to it since its establishment. For example, there are women who married in exchange for having their ransom paid, as a condition for their release from the torture camps in Sinai, and there are children who were born from trafficking and rape. In the absence of status or access to adequate institutional health and welfare services, past traumas further exacerbate and intensify the severe health, mental, economic and social hardships.<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;Sometimes there is also uncertainty. I can think of a woman who became pregnant shortly after entering Israel, and the question &#8216;who is the father of the children&#8217; is a question she will never know the answer to &#8211; is it her husband or someone who attacked her in Sinai&#8221; (Abigail Pinto, Social Worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Prostitution often also leads to unwanted pregnancies&#8230;&#8221; (Tahal Weber, Social worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Under these circumstances, some enter relationships or marriage in Israel as a way to survive without status and rights, so that for them the family unit (which is supposed to provide protection and security) becomes another trap of violence and many relationships involve exploitation and lack of commitment between the partners. The family unit is becoming increasingly vulnerable, especially in a reality where personal and family problems (mental, medical, economic) are not adequately addressed.<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;Women who experience domestic violence are afraid to leave the violent relationship because it means they will not have additional financial support, that they may be ostracized from the community, that they will be viewed as having broken up the family, and more&#8221; (Tahal Weber, Social worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><u>6b. Parental authority<\/u><\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;What does it mean to &#8216;raise children properly?&#8217; &#8211; Properly as per the education and health authorities in Israel? Properly as in Eritrea? Is it even possible to raise children in Israel like in Eritrea?&#8221; (Miriam Meyer, Social worker, ASSAF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Sometimes women refugees who are mothers experience a fractured sense of maternal identity. They therefore must find a way to bridge the gaps between the worlds, and this is accompanied by many challenges on a cultural level.<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;It&#8217;s very difficult when you&#8217;re without a family and come from a completely different culture. I didn&#8217;t know what a baby eats in Israel or what it was like to put a girl in kindergarten. What the doctor didn&#8217;t explain to me \u2013 I didn&#8217;t know&#8221; (S., refugee and mother in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Women who became mothers in Israel, or who arrived in Israel as mothers, usually do not master the Hebrew language and the cultural codes embedded in it, which makes it difficult for them to deal with the educational system, and often leads to an erosion of parental authority. In other words, this is a kind of &#8220;role reversal&#8221; in relation to their children (which often places the children at increased risk). At the same time, the educational system and schools are not always prepared to bridge linguistic and cultural gaps, so that children and mothers &#8220;fall through the cracks.&#8221; This is especially true in segregated schools. One of the mothers whose children attend a segregated school (in Tel Aviv) said:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;One time he (my child) was not allowed into school until 10:00, because there was a misunderstanding about the days of suspension. I brought him to school, and they wouldn&#8217;t let him in. During that time, none of the teachers looked after him&#8221; (Y., refugee and mother in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The long hours that women are forced to work to support their families further erodes parental authority and the bond with their children. Some women work overtime in several places so as to support their children, which leads to prolonged absences from home. This reality leads to frequent absences and children being left in unregulated frameworks (i.e., with no oversight by any governmental authority) for long hours (&#8220;babysitters&#8221;) as well as young children being left with their older siblings for long hours. This may explain the <strong>visible street presence and instability<\/strong> we know exists among children and youth, which places them at risk, thus exposing them to dangerous behaviors from a young age, whether that be from their peers or from adults. (See details in the chapter hereinafter &#8220;To mature, to grow&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The educational system must provide the necessary resources to kindergartens and schools to bridge the linguistic and cultural gaps, both for parents and studentsof parents as well as students, so that refugee mothers can be involved (and not excluded) from the critical stages of their children&#8217;s education. In addition, resources and solutions for after-school hours, as well as for identifying and supporting refugee children at risk, must be significantly expandedand strengthened across the board. The dangerous conditions facing refugee children and youth require increased attention and special planning on the part of the Ministry of Social Affairs and the social services departments of the local authorities where the children live. These plans must include appropriate resource allocation, expanded training tailored for field social workers, and the broadening of available support services. In addition, social services must be fully accessible to children, including ensuring that refugee mothers receive both child and disability allowances.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The lack of adequate and suitable educational frameworks in the afternoon for children of compulsory education age is even more critical for children aged 0-3, whose working mothers have, at present, either very limited solutions or no solutions whatsoever to enable them to care for their children. More on this subject in the following subsection:<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><u>6c. Mothers of Toddlers<\/u><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">There are children in the 0-3 age group, who are not covered by the Compulsory Education Law, who are still in &#8220;babysitters&#8221; &#8211; daycare centers, run by immigrant women, that operate without a license and without administrative oversight. The &#8220;babysitters&#8221; are cheaper and <strong>stay open longer than licensed centers, making them the only realistic option for many working mothers<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong> However, these arrangements are unsafe and detrimental to babies\u2019 and toddlers\u2019 healthy development. (for more information, see <a href=\"https:\/\/assaf.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/assaf_shuttingENdigi.pdf\">ASSAF\u2019s children and education report &#8211; &#8220;Shutting the Door on You&#8221;<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In most cases, the children are cared for by a single adult in cramped conditions, often without going outside or even being taken out of their cribs. In the afternoon, the toddlers are also joined by children from municipal kindergartens, who are not registered for the afternoon frameworks in those institutions for financial reasons, <strong>further exacerbating overcrowding and increasing safety risks<\/strong><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8221; My daughter was in a \u2018babysitter\u2019 &#8211; it\u2019s really hard. They don\u2019t even have beds if they want to sleep. There\u2019s nowhere to play. They just keep the children in their living quarters, a room and a half. There\u2019s a living room &#8211; a dining table and a living room, and all kinds of household stuff &#8211; it\u2019s really crowded. My daughter would come home with bruises all over her face, her whole face was black, swollen. At this age they crawl and start walking and are not strong, and there was no open space &#8211; she (my daughter) would fall on the table, on things in the house, like &#8211; the area was not safe for children&#8221; (Kh., refugee and mother in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The children&#8217;s stay in \u201cbabysitters\u201d is the default for these women, who, as aforementioned, must work long hours for low wages in order to survive. Even mothers whose family and financial situation allow them to reduce their working hours in order not to send their children to a \u201cbabysitter\u201d bear a significant financial burden as a result:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;I had no other choice (i.e. a possible alternative to a \u2018babysitter\u2019). I was simply working many hours, so we (my husband and I) decided that we would both reduce our hours. We managed for two years. It was financially difficult, but we managed. I didn&#8217;t send the other two children to a \u2018babysitter\u2019 either. There are many single mothers &#8211; there are many &#8211; almost all of them. We are the only ones in Jerusalem who took turns looking after the children like this. Some single mothers, some husbands don&#8217;t agree to stay at home, for all sorts of reasons&#8221; (K., refugee and mother in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Following a process that has lasted for years, today many of the toddlers of families residing in Tel Aviv (approximately half of those in the community) are in supervised daycare centers (the &#8220;Unitaf&#8221; model), which offer a supervised alternative for infants and toddlers from refugee and immigrant communities. Unitaf kindergartens are run by kindergarten teachers and staff from the community (and other immigrant communities), under the supervision and training of the educational teams of the associations that operate the frameworks. Still, many children ages 0-3 do not have appropriate solutions.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">There is an urgent need to open supervised and subsidized daycare centers in sufficient number and distribution to enroll preschool-aged refugee children and phase out unregulated frameworks. The protection of toddlers living in Israel must be ensured first and foremost regardless of their civil status. Additional preschool frameworks should be provided and the supervision of unregulated day cares that endanger the children staying in them should be increased. It is imperative to continue to train the kindergarten teachers and nannies in the supervised day care centers which are attended by refugee children and expand the community work with the parents of the toddlers, in cooperation with the care staff.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Section 7: To mature, to grow \/ &#8220;And my future is sort of \u2018\u2019up in the air\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As time passes, girls who grew up or were born in Israel, most of them of Eritrean origin, naturally plant and continue to plant roots here. Most were never given an opportunity to know their parents&#8217; country of origin. They absorb Israeli culture and feel Israeli in every way. Until the age of 18, they are entitled to education in the Israeli educational system, but upon reaching the age of 18 they suddenly turn from minors into refugees, or in the Government&#8217;s dialect, into &#8220;infiltrators&#8221; or &#8220;foreigners who are not deportable.&#8221; This classification underscores the injustice of their situation\u2014they remain labeled as foreigners indefinitely, despite the fact that they cannot be deported.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Although from a young age they experience some form of segregation or racism in public spaces (for more information, see <a href=\"https:\/\/assaf.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/assaf_shuttingENdigi.pdf\">ASSAF\u2019s children and education report &#8211; &#8220;Shutting the Door on You&#8221;<\/a>), <strong>their teenage years bring a painful disillusionment<\/strong> often accompanied by despair and loss of hope, which increase their vulnerability and exposure to at-risk situations. (More on this in this subsection).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">During their school years, children living in Tel Aviv (approximately two-thirds of the community) study in segregated settings, separate from Israeli children. In contrast, those living in other municipalities are legally integrated into local schools without segregation. School years are critical for shaping self-esteem, academic abilities, a sense of competence, belonging, and personal identity. The nature of schooling, i.e. integrated or segregated studies, has an outsized impact on all these emerging skills and identity traits.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Naturally, the exclusion, neglect, and limited opportunities resulting from years of Israeli governmental policy, affect the identity formation process of girls that is characteristic of the adolescent years. <a href=\"https:\/\/assaf.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/assaf_shuttingENdigi.pdf\">In ASSAF\u201ds latest Children\u2019s Report<\/a>, we highlighted a phenomenon that occurs among children of refugees who are educated outside of Tel Aviv. Some of the teenagers choose to distance themselves from their identity as children of Eritrean refugees, and instead present themselves as persons of Ethiopian origin, both at school and in the public sphere. Teachers also tend to think that their origin is Ethiopian (which may indicate a lack of knowledge in the Israeli educational system about the refugee community). The &#8220;Ethiopian identity&#8221; that girls sometimes assume allows them to feel that they have a civic status, closer to that of their Israeli peers, making them less transparent and enabling them to somewhat forget their lack of rights. For a moment they can imagine a future similar to that of their Israeli peers rather than one marked by uncertainty and the absence of legal status and rights. In various cases, it emerged that the parents cooperated with the youth\u2019s choice to identify as &#8220;Ethiopian&#8221; and were in no hurry to reveal their true identity. It is possible that this choice made by the parents was also intended, in their view, to make things easier for the youth and to obscure a difficult reality and an even more difficult future.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This is what A., a young refugee in Israel, recently said:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;From the seventh grade I participated in youth movements like &#8220;Bnei Akiva&#8221;\/&#8221;Aharai&#8221;, and I was relatively socially involved. Overall, I had a good childhood, with activities and friends. I didn&#8217;t grow up in Tel Aviv, so people pretty much concluded that I was simply Ethiopian and Jewish &#8211; and I went with it, I didn&#8217;t correct them, and it started to become more conflictual as we approached the twelfth grade, towards graduation. All my friends, after they received their first army conscription order, are preparing to enter a different framework, and I&#8217;m kind of up in the air &#8211; not knowing what will happen, what won&#8217;t happen, like that&#8230;&#8221; (A., a young woman refugee in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Often, until the moment when the students go off to Gadna (a military program in preparation for enlistment in the IDF) in the 11th\/12th grade, the girls who are children of refugees are considered by their teachers (who are unfamiliar with the target audience and do not receive relevant training in educational frameworks) to be Ethiopians who share a future path with all the other members of their class, when, in fact, the truth is different. Refugee children are barred from participating in Gadna, from enlisting in the IDF\u2014despite their strong motivation\u2014and from pursuing any profession requiring a state-issued occupational license.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Especially for the young children of refugees residing outside of Tel Aviv, who study in integrated classes, the difficulty of growing up also includes bidding farewell to their friends and acquaintances from their school community:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;She felt Israeli in every way. She was the only girl in her class from the refugee community, and the rest of the class related to her as one of them. She was entitled to all the things that everyone else was entitled to, and then suddenly they were going on a trip to visit the army, to see the place, and they told her she couldn&#8217;t go, because of her status. So the child was really hurt, she realized that she has no status. She didn&#8217;t understand that before. For three days she was in bed while her friends were on a trip.&#8221; (S., refugee and mother in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Beyond its clear advantages, integrated education allows them to momentarily \u201cescape\u201d their refugee identity (at the declarative level and in their immediate environment), segregated education accentuates their status as refugees and emphasizes the difference between them and those their age who are citizens\/residents of Israel:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;We live in two worlds, here we speak Hebrew and there, at home, we speak Tigrinya. I think that if there were (in our schools) Israelis whose native language is Hebrew, it could improve our Hebrew. It could also help &#8211; instead of them seeing us on the news and being afraid of us. I think that if there was a school where everyone, Israelis, Eritreans, and Sudanese were all together, then they would know us and who we really are.&#8221; (K., young refugee in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Segregation causes serious damage &#8211; humiliation, social labeling, educational and cognitive damage, and ongoing harm to the normal development of the children. Furthermore, segregation encourages intolerance and racism, which already exist towards the refugee population in Israel. As we showed <a href=\"https:\/\/assaf.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/assaf_shuttingENdigi.pdf\">in our Children\u2019s Report<\/a>, the children of refugees experience hostility and racism in the public sphere from a young age on playgrounds, in schools, on buses and on the street. Given the dramatic effects of segregation, the unacceptable segregation in educational frameworks must be completely abolished and refugee children must be integrated into the educational frameworks where children with Israeli citizenship study, while addressing the refugee childrens\u2019 unique needs.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In any case, from childhood on, the girls experience racism and learn about their low status in the social and public sphere, if when they choose to obscure their true identity and identify as Ethiopian, or if during a casual bus ride:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>\u201cJust last week someone spat on me on the bus, yelling that I was a stinking infiltrator\u201d (G, young refugee in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Even if they manage to overcome racism, insults, and feelings of inferiority, by age 18 they realize that many of the opportunities available to their Israeli peers are closed to them. This realization often leads to a decrease in motivation in general:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;Why even finish school? My options are so few &#8211; so why?&#8221; (B., young refugee in Israel).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I work for Mesilah (in the Tel Aviv suburb). I see the children, the frustration in their eyes. I have a little brother who once said to me, \u2018I see you finished your studies, you have a diploma. OK, how are you going to continue? Why don&#8217;t you do something with it? Why do I have to work hard and in the end it doesn&#8217;t pay off for me?\u2019 It&#8217;s very frustrating (M., young woman refugee in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The decline in motivation often leads to dropping out of school, which in turn increases wandering on the street, exposing girls to risks from a young age. We receive chilling testimonies from girls at the ASSAF youth club, describing how they are forced to fend off men on the street who try to sexually exploit them with very explicit suggestions such as &#8211; &#8220;How much do you charge?&#8221;, &#8220;Are you free?&#8221;, &#8220;Where are we going?&#8221;, &#8220;I really like clean\/full girls &#8230;&#8221; and so on.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Girls who once felt Israeli\u2014equal, hopeful, with dreams and aspirations, and a desire to belong and contribute\u2014suddenly lose their optimismFrom girls who may have felt for a certain time Israeli, equal, with dreams, a future, hope, aspirations and, above all, the ability and motivation to belong and contribute &#8211; they suddenly lose their optimism and inner burning desire to develop. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the girls also express a strong desire to enlist in the IDF, just to feel like a significant part of the society in which they grew up:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;I feel transparent&#8230; My friends are enlisting and I can&#8217;t enlist, and if not the army then I want to go to study in academia. I dream of studying, of having an education, of being able to contribute to my society, but I discovered that I can&#8217;t get into academia. I reached the age of 18 and my life was stuck, I feel like I wasted 12 years of study&#8221; (A., young women refugee in Israel).<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;From the age of 15-16 when I joined &#8220;Aharai&#8221;, I really, really wanted to assimilate into Israeli society. Yes, I love the country very much. I grew up here and also grew up in Bnei Brak in an environment where I didn&#8217;t grow up with Eritreans\/asylum seekers like me, and I really wanted to continue the Israeli dream &#8211; to enlist and contribute, to play a significant role. Always, since I was 6-15, I tried to look for all sorts of answers about how and where I could enlist, and maybe there was an option to convert to Judaism, because in the end I was a counselor in Bnei Akiva and grew up in Bnei Brak so that I connected to Judaism in some way. I tried a lot, my dream was to be part of the State, as if to feel like I was part of Israeli society, and I really wanted to contribute, and I tried all sorts of ways, but none of them worked for me. And in the end I decided to go to a pre-military preparatory school in the hope that I could enlist from there &#8211; &#8220;Yiftah&#8221; &#8211; I was a counselor there, I prepared for the army, for the values \u200b\u200bof the IDF, and I really hoped that I would be able to enlist, but it didn&#8217;t work&#8221; (P., young woman refugee in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Although various higher education paths are technically open to them, young refugee women must pay tuition fees that are 25% higher than their Israeli peers. According to the Council for Higher Education, refugees are classified as tourists for tuition purposes &#8211; as if they were not born, raised and educated in Israel.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">As detailed in the section &#8220;To achieve a working wage, to work&#8221;, any profession that requires a state-issued license is closed to them. As a result, many academic tracks become effectively irrelevant because without the possibility of obtaining professional certification, studying these subjects becomes futile.. For example, a young woman who graduated with a degree in education out of a desire to become a teacher &#8211; realized that this was not possible; a young woman who graduated from 12th grade and wanted to volunteer at the Magen David Adom &#8211; realized that she couldn\u2019t. According to social worker Noa Nivron, ASSAF Youth Program Manager, young refugee women are repeatedly blocked by systemic barriers.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Without status, these girls have no choice but &#8220;to look forward&#8221; to the same future as their parents &#8211; one marked by economic hardship, health insecurity, and food instability. <strong>Most of the jobs available to them are limited to unskilled labor\u2014such as cleaning and construction\u2014or exploitative, precarious work without social protections,<\/strong> as detailed in section 2 of this report. <strong>But if we simply open the door for these girls and young women\u2014allowing them to grow and thrive like their peers\u2014we can all benefit. Their resilience and desire to belong and contribute to Israeli society are invaluable. We must not consign them to the same harsh reality as their parents\u2014one that serves neither them nor Israeli society.<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>&#8220;I did not choose to come here. My friends (who have Israeli citizenship\/residency) can get a driver&#8217;s license, study, and they can go wherever they wish &#8211; and I&#8217;m left behind because of the fact that I&#8217;m Eritrean. And I didn&#8217;t choose to come here, but rather my parents did, and now I&#8217;m stuck here. For you, it&#8217;s a small thing &#8211; you don&#8217;t encounter it every day, but there are people here &#8211; we grew up here &#8211; we can\u2019t breathe &#8211; we simply cannot breathe. And I don&#8217;t feel like getting married, having children, or building something. I don&#8217;t know where I&#8217;ll be in a year, two or three. During the COVID-19 pandemic we were the last ones in the country to receive any attention, and it sucks, because in the end we&#8217;re also men and women. And if they turn to us &#8211; the young people &#8211; and let us contribute to the country &#8211; that will also help us&#8221; (M., young refugee in Israel).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Section 8: Conclusion and Calls for Action<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In closing, the following are the words of Zameret Hershco, Director of the Psychosocial Department of ASSAF:<\/p>\n<ul dir=\"ltr\">\n<li>\u201cThe struggles of women refugees reveal the intersection of gender, class, ethnicity, and lack of citizenship\/residency, which deepen the oppression they experience. Women refugees face not only the general challenges of displacement and homelessness, but also patriarchal oppression that is exacerbated in crisis situations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">However, it is important for us to note the agency of women refuges: their ability to act, lead, and support their communities despite the challenges. Rather than being seen as mere victims, women refugees can be a driving force for social change. They bring with them unique experiences, new perspectives, and determination that can contribute to the rebuilding of communities and the creation of a more just and equitable society.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Migration\/refugeeism is more than a physical transition from one place to another; it is a process of changing identity, building new strengths and energies, and challenging existing power structures. From a feminist perspective, migration can serve as an arena for addressing inequality and empowering women, both individually and collectively. With appropriate support and recognition of the power of migrant women, migration becomes an opportunity for broader social and feminist change.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The feminist struggle for women refugees requires systemic change that includes more equitable migration policies, addressing the specific needs of women in crisis situations, and including them in decision-making in refugee communities. This approach calls on society to recognize the contribution of women refugees and to provide them with the necessary tools to break the cycles of oppression, even in the most difficult refugee situations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><u>Calls for action:<\/u><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u25c4 After two decades of living here legally, and in light of the State&#8217;s recognition that their lives are in danger if they are returned to their countries of origin, the State must examine the asylum applications of these women. Granting them status will remove the many bureaucratic barriers they face and allow them to live with the minimum dignity that they deserve.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u25c4 The National Health Insurance Law must be applied to refugee communities, so as to afford the women and their children all the necessary health services.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u25c4 The State must open all the types of rehabilitation and financial assistance mechanisms of the National Insurance benefits to these women (at least for those who have lived in Israel for many years). The State must also open the doors of the social services departments in local authorities and allow those who need it to receive all the assistance, and the resources required for them in the community.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u25c4 Women refugees should be provided with rental assistance as per the criteria set by Ministry of Construction and Housing regulations, just as this assistance is provided to all residents in Israel.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u25c4 The immediate opening of supervised and subsidized daycare centers should be ensured, in a number and distribution that will allow the absorption of preschool children in supervised frameworks, to ensure, first and foremost, the protection of toddlers living in Israel regardless of their civil status. Additional preschool frameworks should also be provided and supervision of unregulated daycare centers that endanger the children staying in them should be increased; the training of kindergarten teachers and caregivers in supervised daycare centers where refugee children stay must continue, and community work with mothers, in cooperation with the caregiving team, should be expanded.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u25c4 Enforcement against traffickers, pimps and consumers of prostitution should be increased, in an effort to improve and perfect the mechanisms for recognizing, protecting, and rehabilitating victims of trafficking and slavery. In addition, the State must include women refugees who engage in survival prostitution in any protection and rehabilitation program applied to prostitution populations in Israel.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u25c4 Girls and young women who grew up in Israel must be given status, since in its absence, they have no choice but &#8220;to look forward&#8221; to the same future as their parents &#8211; who lack economic, health, and nutritional security, among others, and for whom most of the jobs available to them range from physical work that does not require prior training (for example, in cleaning and construction) to dubious jobs that, as mentioned, involve their exploitation.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u25c4 Likewise, the unacceptable segregation in educational frameworks must be completely abolished and refugee children must be integrated into the educational frameworks where children with Israeli citizenship study, while addressing the refugee childrens\u2019 unique needs.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women Refugees in Israel 2025 March 2025 Acknowledgements and credits: Writing and editing: Hadar Pesya Aviel Graphic Design: Amir Reuveni English Translation: Marc Marcus Thank you to: Anat Goldschmid, a social work student who interned at ASSAF And to all the women, refugees and social workers quoted in the report, who agreed to share their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","type-situation-report"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Women Refugees in Israel 2025 &#8212; 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