This week, the Haaretz Daily Newspaper reported that due to resistance from the Justice Ministry, a proposal by Interior Minister Avraham Poraz and Welfare Minister Zevulun Orlev to grant permanent legal status in Israel to the children of illegal foreign workers would be denied.

The opinion of the Justice Ministry declares that it is impossible to distinguish between the children of illegal Israeli foreign workers, and the children of illegal Palestinian or Jordanian foreign workers living in Israel.  Justice Ministry attorney Yochi Gnessin cited that any proposal to distinguish between these children would likely be perceived as a racist decision. If the ministerial committee grants visas to the illegal foreign workers, it could be interpreted that the government is supporting unlawful actions. 

Poraz conveyed his disappointment with the Justice Ministry’s position and said that he would not resign his efforts to regulate the status of illegal foreign workers’ children. 

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The Observer (UK) has reported that British ministers have dropped a proposal that would require all prospective immigrants to be screened for HIV.  Fearing that such a requirement would lead to an increase in undocumented immigration, ministers have declined to adopt a policy that 46 other countries, including the U.S. and Canada, have implemented.  Some ministers feared that the proposed requirement would lead to an increased demand for forged health certificates in certain African countries.  Others said that the proposal was racist because they claimed that it was principally aimed at African immigrants. 

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According to The Moscow Times, Lieutenant Colonel Igor Vyalkov, a Russian border guard, has been charged with state treason in the form of espionage.  Specifically, he is accused of passing classified information on issues of national security to Estonia’s intelligence agency from 2001 to 2002. He is also accused of illegally crossing the border several times to deliver his data.  Vyalkov has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, he faces a prison term of 12 to 22 years.

Trials began during the first week of July but were halted after the defendant expressed distrust in his lawyers.  A new lawyer was added to the existing legal team.  The newspaper Gazeta reported July 6 that Vyalkov could be suspected of passing information to Estonia and that Estonia, a NATO member since earlier this year, could have handed the information over to the intelligence agency of another country, such as Britain.