Despite warming relations with Turkey following President Herzog's visit to Ankara, the "Real Estate Today" system has learned that hundreds of Turkish construction workers seeking to arrive in the country have been detained due to a strike by foreign workers.
The CEO of the Turkish company "Yelmzler" Ahmad Arik, who employs about a thousand workers in Israel in leading projects but has a quota of 200 workers left unfulfilled, addressed an unusual letter to the prime minister and foreign and housing ministers warning of helplessness regarding the issue.
"Unfortunately, recently, after the corona restrictions were lifted, we are facing difficulties in issuing visas and bringing workers to Israel due to sanctions by Foreign Ministry employees.
"Currently, about 50 construction workers are detained in Turkey, who passed the company's screenings but were forced to return to their homes, after the visas could not be issued for them in Ankara," the CEO wrote.
He added: "Throughout the Corona epidemic, due to the closure of the sky, we had to stretch the limits of capacity even further, right up to the end, and as soon as possible - we were the first to rent a plane and take special flights to Israel, which also involved financing costs. Workers in two weeks isolation in the hotel and corona inspections.
The company had to give up projects during the corona, its limitations and cuts, and suffered losses as a result.
We are now making every effort to meet our commitments. '
"These days, when all the leaders of the country are looking for solutions to accelerate construction, leaving the said workers abroad, just because of the difficulty of issuing visas in Ankara because of the sanctions, it is explicitly and simply sticking a stick in the wheels of project execution."
The Population Authority responded: "First, the Foreign Ministry should be contacted about the sanctions and certainly not refer the allegations to the Population Authority. Second, in accordance with government decisions, Yilmzler has a quota of 1,200 foreign workers from Turkey. About 1,000 of the quota are in Israel."
The Foreign Ministry Workers' Committee responded: "We express our deep regret to the construction industry victims of the sanctions. For months we refrained from taking organizational measures and asked the Foreign and Finance Ministers to exhaust the dialogue and negotiations. Unfortunately these months were not used to resolve the crisis. "He began to burden the citizens of Israel. The solution to all the sanctions is to stop the abusive employment method and return all the terms of employment that were cut by a light hand in a way that will allow the rescue of the Israeli Foreign Service from collapse."
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