OFWs in Israel struggle to acquire green passes

In Israel, glitches of a government website hamper the acquisition of green passes of some foreign workers.

This after reports from the country’s migrants and asylum seekers saying that they were unable to acquire the so-called green passports, a permit to access public areas, from the Health Ministry’s website.

According to the new guidelines, the passes will only be granted to individuals who have been inoculated with second or third dose of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines and those who have recovered and tested negative from the virus.

While some foreigners said that they have already gotten a third jab, errors are still permeating the records of the Health Ministry’s database, causing them inconvenience.

The same is true for Filipino caregiver Benjamin Nepomuceno, 34, who said that he has been experiencing troubles in acquiring his green pass even if he is already fully vaccinated.

He said that the Health Ministry website, where he was supposed to obtain his pass, was inaccessible and time-consuming.

“Kapag pumasok ako sa website, may nakalagay na error. Parang ituturo turo ka na lang kung saan, kung kailangan mong pumunta doon sa agency na nagturok sayo ng first shot. Parang bibigyan ka pa nila ng trabaho,” Nepomuceno stated in a virtual interview.

(Every time I enter the website, there were errors on display. It is like they are instructing you to go to the agency where you had your first shot. It is like they’re giving me a hard time.)

Nepomuceno, who works from Sunday to Friday, also said that dealing with green pass and the website errors only adds complication to his already hectic schedule at work.

“Wala kaming masyadong time kasi busy ka rin sa alaga mo kasi caregiver kami dito so it’s like magw-waste ka talaga ng isang araw mo or hours mo para pumunta doon sa agency para ayusin yung mga gano’ng bagay.”

(We don’t have much time because we are busy caring for our employer because we are caregivers, so it’s like you will waste your day or hours just to get to the agency to fix those stuff.)

Difficulties in acquiring passes, he said, may have been caused by the inconsistent input of personal data on the Health Ministry website.

“Isa sa mga error… isa sa mga posible nangyayari na gano’n, mali yung nainput mo. During that time ‘di ka pa nakapag-renew ng passport mo, and then naexpirean ka ng passport kaya kumuha ka ng bago so ibang passport na yung nalagay mo.”

(One of the errors… one of the possible instances is that your input was wrong. During that time, you still haven’t renewed your passport, and then your passport got expired so you will get another passport, meaning that you will input new passport information.)

Errors in website

Such a case is not new to foreigners in the country.

Back in March, the Health Ministry received complaints from non-citizens due to similar technical issues in their website, which impede the issuance of their official government-verified passes. While it promised to address the circumstances by “issuing the appropriate documentation to non-Israeli ID holders,” the problem still stands today.

The root cause of the problem may be attributed to lack of medical insurance, a requirement for acquiring a green pass, of some Filipino migrants and even Israeli citizens, National Alliance of Filipino Communities- Israel President Winston Santos said.

“There are thousands, not only foreign workers but even Israelis, who are not subscribed to any medical insurance, so libo talaga yung nag-access, so nagshushutdown ang kanilang website (so thousands are accessing, causing their website to shutdown),” Santos said in a virtual interview.

Another reason, Santos added, is the problem in the irregularity of platforms where sign-ups for the green passes take place.

“Nagkakaroon ng problema dahil if you will access the old app, yun ay para lang don sa dalawang doses, and many people were not properly informed or aware na napalitan na yung application,” he said.

(Problem arises because if you will access the old application, it is only for two doses, and many people were not properly informed or aware that the application has been changed.)

There are two ways that Filipino migrants can acquire their green passes: either through the Ramzor application or the Ministry of Health’s website.

Israel vaccination efforts

Most Filipino migrants, Santos said, already received their green passes with about 80% having been vaccinated with the booster shot, owing to the Israeli government’s inclusive measures in mitigating the spread of the Covid-19 virus amongst Filipinos.

“We’re very blessed in Israel because, first, everyone knows that Israel was the first one na nag-administer ng vaccination with or without insurance. This is mostly covered by the government,” he stated in Filipino.

As of Nov. 4, Israel has already vaccinated about 88.1% of its total population with 15,945,257 Covid-19 vaccines already administered, according to the data from Reuters Covid-19 tracker.

Of these vaccines, over 30,000 Filipinos have been inoculated with two doses of Pfizer and BioNTech. The population comprised caregivers, agriculture students, staff of the Philippine embassy in Israel, and even workers whose work permits have expired, as stated by the Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Rafael Harpaz.

Meanwhile, the latest data reported that about 3,972,563 residents have received Covid-19 booster shots with over 5,738,115 residents who received two doses.

Israel is the leading country in the world in terms of vaccination campaigns, having started its vaccination drive as early as December 2020.

The country was also the first to require booster shots in an effort to reduce the cases of Covid-19 virus amidst the surge of the Delta variant back in August.

Prospects in the pandemic

The population of Filipino workers in Israel at the start of the pandemic was plunged by 77.8% to 1,717 migrants from the previous estimates of 7,748 in 2019, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

Among the Filipino migrants who were deployed in 2020 were 921 new hired workers and 796 rehired workers.

However, the number of aspiring Filipinos who will join Nepomuceno starts to increase this year as the Israeli economy loosens up to expand caregiving jobs for migrants.

The first batch of workers, comprised of 48 Filipino caregivers, was deployed to Israel, the POEA said in a press release dated July 28.

Additional batches of Filipino workers, the agency stated, will be expected after the Population and Immigration Authority of the State of Israel intends to recruit over 5,000 more caregivers.

On remittances, Filipino migrant workers transmitted US$89.9 billion to the Philippines in 2019. And even with the pandemic, Filipinos were able to transmit US$97.4 billion to the Philippines, as provided by the data of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

This year, the BSP recorded higher remittances that were transmitted to the Philippines within an eight-month period. From January to August, Filipino migrant workers in Israel were able to send a total of US$84.8 billion to their families in the origin country.