Israel seeks to recruit 15K additional workers from India

The Israeli government has sought to recruit 10,000 construction workers and 5,000 caregivers from India as part of an agreement between the two countries, the National Skill Development Cor porat i o n said on Tuesday. They will be in addition to 10,000 Indians who have already been selected to work in the West Asian country.

This came amid reports of 500 Indian workers being sent back from Israel after they were found to lack requisite skills. They had been recruited to replace Palestinians whose work permits were cancelled after Israel’s war on Gaza began. Tel Aviv has been seeking to replace around 90,000 Palestinians who became ineligible for work. In November, it signed a bilateral agreement with Delhi to conduct a recruitment drive. The National Skill Development Corporation, a non-profit organisation established by India’s finance ministry in 2008, sent around 2,600 workers to the West Asian country in April under the agreement, according to The Indian Express.

Indian workers in Israel: The first batch of 64 workers from Haryana and UP left for Israel on April 3. More than four months later, the effort to replace Palestinian workers in Israel has faced challenges due to a “skill mismatch” and inadequate processes to assess Indian workers’ abilities, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.