Israel Reaches the Highest Tier in the Fight Against Human Trafficking; Rights Organizations Say: “The Reality Tells a Different Story”

Last week the U.S. State Department upgraded Israel to Tier 1, the highest level in its annual ranking of efforts to combat human trafficking. According to the report, the ranking means that Israel fully meets the minimum standards established to combat the phenomenon, following steps taken by state authorities during 2025.

During the year, police opened 42 investigations into suspected human trafficking: 33 involving sex trafficking and nine involving forced labor. Nineteen suspects were prosecuted, six were convicted, and five received prison sentences of more than one year. Compared with 2024, the number of investigations increased, while the number of convictions declined.

Alongside its praise, the report points to several steps that have not been taken and highlights the vulnerabilities faced by migrant workers newly arriving in Israel. It notes that Israel has stepped up its response to trafficking victims. In 2025, 90 people were officially recognized as victims of human trafficking: 45 were trafficked for sexual exploitation, 40 for forced labor, and the purpose of trafficking was not specified for the remaining five.

After they were officially recognized as victims, the government provided them with services including shelter, vocational training, psychosocial care, medical treatment, language training and legal assistance, both directly and through partnerships with non-governmental organizations. Total government spending on services for trafficking victims in 2025 amounted to nearly 14 million shekels, an increase of approximately NIS 1 million from the previous year. Among other measures, the state operated one shelter for women and another for men who were victims of trafficking, each with 30 beds.

The report notes that the state assists victims in legal proceedings against traffickers and allows them to return to their countries of origin, if they choose to do so, after giving testimony. In April 2025, legislation came into effect expanding free legal assistance to all trafficking victims through the Legal Aid Administration (LAA), covering civil, immigration and criminal proceedings. In 2025, the administration assisted 32 trafficking victims in criminal proceedings against alleged traffickers.

Thousands of Dollars in Recruitment Fees and a Lack of Oversight

Despite Israel’s improved overall ranking, the report sharply criticizes the government’s policy on bringing foreign workers into the country since May 2024. The policy significantly expanded the ability to recruit foreign workers privately, outside bilateral agreements, which include mechanisms to prevent the charging of excessive and prohibited recruitment fees.

The report notes that the Ministry of Justice’s Coordination Unit for Combating Human Trafficking commissioned a study which found that 73% of workers recruited through this route were required to pay more than $4,000 in recruitment fees, while appr

oximately 20% had their passports or other documents confiscated by their employers. These practices are closely associated with human trafficking and conditions of slavery.

Other problems identified by the survey included delayed wage payments, working hours exceeding legal limits, and inadequate protection against safety risks in the construction industry. The State Department report also noted that non-governmental organizations had reported that workers recruited through private recruitment channels sometimes paid fees of 20,000–25,000 dollars. Many took out high-interest loans to cover these costs, leaving them vulnerable due to their debt.

The report emphasized the importance of recruiting foreign workers through intergovernmental agreements. It noted that in 2025, Israel had 16 such agreements with other countries, including agreements with Sri Lanka and Cambodia signed that year. The report also noted that despite the significant increase in the number of foreign workers in Israel, the Enforcement Unit of the Population and Immigration Authority had expanded by just 15 employees. NGOs reported that the unit’s work focuses primarily on workers’ legal status rather than on violations of their rights by employers.

The Ministry of Labor’s Regulation and Enforcement Division added 30 new labor inspectors who received training on preventing human trafficking. However, civil society organizations noted that the number of inspectors was insufficient to ensure effective enforcement and proactive inspections, and that, in practice, inspections generally began only after a complaint had been filed about workers’ employment conditions.

The report notes that the government did not adequately monitor whether employment contracts complied with labor laws or whether foreign workers were provided with detailed employment contracts in their own languages, as required. Another practice highlighted in the report was the recruitment of students in foreign countries for agricultural study programs in Israel, when in practice, upon arrival, they were forced to work in the industry. The report also noted concerns among civil society organizations about forced labor in Chinese and Turkish companies operating in Israel, involving debt bondage or the coercive signing of promissory notes.

The report also details efforts to combat human trafficking in areas under the Palestinian Authority and in Gaza. It finds that no data is collected on trafficking cases and that no traffickers have been investigated, prosecuted or convicted. The report notes that the Palestinian Authority has no procedures for identifying victims of human trafficking, and that at least 43 children were identified as victims of sex trafficking in 2025. Approximately 100 children were removed from construction sites in areas under the Palestinian Authority by the Ministry of Labor. Without providing figures, the report also notes that children in Gaza and areas under the Palestinian Authority are recruited for use as child soldiers, and that they are vulnerable to forced labor in areas under the Authority, in settlements and within Israel.

Human Rights Organizations: “The State’s Responsibility Does Not End with Identifying Victims After the Fact”

The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants and Kav LaOved issued a joint response stating that despite Israel’s improved ranking, significant gaps remain in identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking and people held in conditions of slavery.

“While the Ministry of Justice celebrates the ‘achievement’ of Israel’s promotion to Tier 1 in the American report on combating human trafficking, the reality tells a different story. The report addressed these issues, but it is disappointing to see how little weight it gave to the serious problems in identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking and people held in conditions of slavery.”

The organizations also addressed the expansion of migrant worker arrivals in Israel since October 2023. “Israel has brought hundreds of thousands of migrant workers into the country without adequate mechanisms to protect their rights. At Kav LaOved, we encounter workers who have been subjected to severe exploitation, withheld wages, inadequate housing and deep dependence on their employers, often with no realistic way to change employers without jeopardizing their status in Israel. In the most severe cases, employment conditions amount to slavery. The state, which is responsible for regulating workers’ entry and employment, allows, and sometimes actively promotes, the existence of mechanisms that increase their vulnerability to exploitation.”

The organizations added: “We welcome the increase in the number of victims identified by the authorities, but the fact that approximately half of them were exploited in prostitution, precisely during a period of dramatic expansion in labor migration to Israel, raises serious questions about the identification of victims of human trafficking and slavery in the labor sectors.”

Regarding women who arrived in Israel after fleeing Ethiopia, they said: “At the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants, we have been raising the alarm for years about a trafficking route to Israel: women who fled the civil war in Ethiopia to Jordan to work as domestic workers were employed there under severe conditions of slavery and trafficked to Israel. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Justice, which in previous years had itself drawn attention to the phenomenon and publicized it in the press, refused this year to recognize its victims, preventing them from rebuilding their lives and recovering. All this is happening as the situation in Ethiopia deteriorates at an alarming pace.”

The organizations added that, in their view, efforts to combat human trafficking should also be expanded to address exploitation in the labor sectors. “Israel has already demonstrated that it knows how to combat trafficking in women for the purpose of prostitution. It is time for it to commit to fighting human trafficking and slavery in the labor sectors as well. The state’s responsibility does not end with identifying victims after the fact, but also includes preventing the employment conditions and mechanisms of dependency that enable their exploitation.”

They concluded: “Human rights organizations will continue to stand alongside those who were brought to Israel and exploited, as well as those who fled there in a struggle for their lives and freedom. But the responsibility to protect them rests first and foremost with the state. We hope that the high international ranking will encourage the state to take action to genuinely protect their rights.”