Farmers In Flight: Kenya & Malawi To Send Thousands Of Farmers To Israel
An unlikely deal was made between the leaders in Kenya and Malawi and Israel over bringing thousands of farmworkers as a way to fill in the gap of the country’s shortage of labor. The decision came after Israel banned more than 150,000 Palestinian workers from the occupied West Bank and Gaza to enter the country after the October 7 attacks.
Currently, the farms in Israel have a shortage of between 30,000 and 40,000 farmers. This is because of an ongoing ban on Palestinian workers entering the country, mainly construction workers. Add to that an additional 10,000 migrant farmworkers who ended up leaving Israel after October 7.
The current plan is for Kenya to send 1500 farmworkers to Israel while Malawi plans to send over 5000. This is all in the midst of efforts of canceling these plans, especially by politicians, activists and locals from those countries who have concerns over these deals.
This wasn’t the first time that Israel attempted to bring in workers from abroad, as in November they attempted to bring in workers from India and asked for 100,0000 workers but the request was refused by India’s major trade unions.
The new and ongoing deal was made public by a Malawian opposition party leader who called the entire affair “an evil transaction.”
