Israel and Sri Lanka have signed an agreement, which will allow Israel to immediately hire 10,000 Sri Lankan farm workers, according to Globes, Israel business news.
Accordingly, the agreement has been signed by Israel’s Minister of Interior Moshe Arbel and Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Israel Nimal Bandaranaike.
The first Sri Lankan agricultural workers within the framework of this agreement should arrive in the coming weeks.
There are already 4,500 workers from Sri Lanka employed in Israel, most of them working in the homecare sector.
The new agreement follows cabinet approval last week allowing Israeli companies to bring 5,000 workers to the country for the agricultural sector.
Israel’s agricultural sector has been hit hard by the war. Since October 7, some 8,000 foreign agricultural workers have fled Israel out of 30,000 foreign workers in the farming sector.
During the attack on October 7, Hamas militants dozens of foreign workers were killed, while several dozen were taken hostage in Gaza.
At the same time, some 20,000 Palestinian agricultural workers have been banned from entering the country. (NewsWire)