10,000 Indian Construction Workers To Reach Israel Soon Amid War

With Israel’s construction sector suffering a severe manpower crisis post the October 7 conflict with Hamas, some 10,000 workers from India are to make their way starting next week, industry sources said on Wednesday.

These 10,000 workers will reach in batches of 700 to 1,000 a week, a source in the Israel’s Builders Association (IBA) told news agency PTI.

With Israel’s latest conflict with Hamas in Gaza a little short of four months, and a ban on the entry of Palestinian workers and the departure of several thousand other foreign workers, the Israeli construction industry has been facing a deep crisis and several ongoing projects are getting either stalled or delayed.

Following the conflict, Israel has banned the entry of Palestinian workers. The departure of several thousand other foreign workers, the Israeli construction industry has been facing a deep crisis.

Israeli business daily The Calcalist in a report in Hebrew last week said that the quota of foreign manpower for the construction industry has been increased from 30,000 to 50,000 and that the Israeli government last month approved the arrival of 10,000 workers from India.

The IBA source confirmed to PTI that the details in the Calcalist report were correct.

When asked about the arrival of the first batch of workers, the source said, “We hope they’ll come next week.” The workers to arrive in Israel would be part of the private recruitment track, which was approved by the government in parallel with the bilateral (inter-governmental) track to enable rapid recruitment of workers into the construction industry.

The IBA is looking to hire workers also from other countries such as Mexico, Kenya and Malawi. Screening of workers is said to have begun three weeks ago in India, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.

“To date, out of about 8,000 workers examined, about 5,500 have been found suitable for work in Israel – the vast majority Indian,” The Calcalist had reported.

“The Indian construction workers are at a high professional level. Many of them were previously employed in the Gulf countries, so these are skilled manpower. Most of them are fluent in English, and those who have worked in the Gulf also know Arabic, which is a great advantage,” an industry source was quoted by the business daily as saying.