Skip to main content. You are here Home. Date: The women live here as asylum seekers, many of them having endured torture in Sinai on the way. They are left as single parents in Israel. With no assistance or ability to earn a living, and with the government piling on obstacles, they are being pushed into prostitution. The first signs were seen about four years ago.
It can lead to harsh condemnation and to the women being ostracized from society. Also, they have a deep-seated fear because they are without legal status. This is a group that is suffering oppression in so many ways, and prostitution is another circle of oppression that makes them especially vulnerable. At first they worked mainly in south Tel Aviv, near the new central bus station, when the scene was more confined to their own community. But in the last few years they have spread beyond their familiar territory, and for good reason.
There are only about 7, women among all the asylum seekers in this country, and a majority of these women are from Eritrea. An estimated 30 percent were subjected to torture in Sinai. When the asylum seekers first became involved in prostitution, such business was always conducted behind closed doors โ whether in informal bars or in the coffee shops in the Tel Aviv bus station.
Sometimes it would be in an inside room in the bar, or sometimes the woman would go with the john to his apartment. Very often, the owner of the place is the one who closed the deal with the customer looking for a prostitute. In the last few years, the circle of customers has expanded as Israeli men seeking prostitutes no longer avoided these bars. At the same time, many of the asylum seekers would rather get away from the community as much as possible. The report from one Tel Aviv police raid on the brothel at 98 Hayarkon Street, opposite the Dan Hotel, one of the largest and long-running brothels in the city, mentioned that Eritrean women were found there.
Another worry for the asylum seekers, besides the shortage of aid and opportunities for rehabilitation, is the implications of the Deposit Law, which requires them to have 20 percent of their wages put into a fund that can only be redeemed when they leave Israel. If the asylum seeker does not leave the country at the appointed time, the government is authorized to take a significant portion of the money that has accumulated in the fund.
