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Migrant workers who arrive in Israel to take up jobs in the healthcare, construction and agricultural industries are grossly overpaying the agents that brought them here, and spend more than a third of their time working just to pay back the initial fees, a new study released Monday found.

Inspectors from the Interior Ministry's Population and Immigration Administration have begun impersonating prospective employers in an effort to apprehend illegal foreign workers. The inspectors have arranged meetings with the migrants, ostensibly to discuss employment. On at least two occasions, when the migrants arrived, they were arrested.

A foreign worker from Nepal is suing Interior Minister Eli Yishai's sister, Yael Sha'ashua, for allegedly employing her illegally and without paying her social benefits as required by law.

JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament on Tuesday approved harsh new penalties on illegal migrants and Israelis who help them, passing one of several controversial measures designed to stanch the flood of Africans seeking sanctuary from poverty and conflict.

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch has ordered the police and prison service to prepare to detain hundreds of migrant workers likely to be arrested under a bill whose final Knesset readings were delayed Monday by a week.

Israel is ending its collective protection of Ivory Coast asylum seekers, the Population and Immigration Authority (PIA) said on Wednesday, basing its decision on a Foreign Ministry inspection of political tensions in the African nation.

Eight Israeli citizens pleaded guilty on Wednesday to working illegally in Halifax.