The Immigration Department together with the Health Ministry has given permits to 300 engineers and construction workers from China to return to Israel in order to continue the work on the train line in Tel Aviv.

According to the Israeli media, the agreement included a caveat that the workers wait for 7 days in isolation abroad and 14 additional days in Israel. Additionally, following the 21 day isolation period, all workers will be subject to a medical examination prior to being allowed to continue their work under the close observation of Netta – the company that is the lead contractor on the construction project.

The plan to bring back selected foreign workers from China and Europe originated in April when the Interim Director of the Transportation Ministry, Koby Biltstein, requested that the Director-General of the Health Ministry Moshe Bar Siman Tov allow numerous engineers to enter the country in order to continue working on various major projects. The projects in question include construction on ports in both Haifa and Ashdod, the cable car in Haifa, the Haifa Nazareth train line, the Green light-rail line in Jerusalem, and the first train line in Tel Aviv.

During April only 20 permits were issued for engineers to reenter Israel in order to work on the Tel Aviv train line. CEO of Netta, Ram Blinkov, sent an urgent letter to the Transportation Ministry and the Treasury stating that if he could not bring back the foreign engineers the project would be delayed indefinitely. The letter bore fruit and additional permits were issued on Tuesday morning.

The Director of Netta, Chaim Glick, said: “The 300 permits were absolutely necessary and will be a big help in moving forward with the project. However, there are still 200 additional critical workers and engineers in China who are stranded and we have no idea how we will get them back to Israel in order to help us continue the project. We thank the government offices who helped make this happen and find this solution to allow these workers to come back. We hope that they will continue along the same guidelines and assist us in bringing back the rest of the manpower required to finish this project.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)