KLO and ACRI joined together in an appeal to cancel a law allowing PIBA to appropriate accumulated social rights of migrant workers once they stay in Israel a few months past the period allowed by their visa. As of today, the Foreign Workers' Law and the Interior Ministry's regulations stipulate that money for migrant worker’s pension funds are to be deposited in a fund managed by PIBA and released to them upon their departure from Israel. In the event that a migrant worker stays beyond their allotted visa period, the money in this account will start to be deducted incrementally. KLO and ACRI filed petitions on behalf of two employees in the construction industry, which maintained that this regulation is unconstitutional and should be canceled.
One of the petitions was filed on behalf of Zhu Longjun, a worker who was brought to Israel to work in the construction industry on a visa that was renewed for 12 years, until the renewal process was abruptly cancelled. He was unaware of the regulations in place around overstaying a visa and by the time he understood his legal situation and prepared for his return to China, he had already been stripped of 100,000 NIS from his deposit fund, hard-earned money from his many years of work in Israel. The second petition was filed on behalf of a Moldovan migrant who was injured in a serious work-related accident. While waiting for the medical committee to review his case, his visa expired and a quarter of his social rights were deducted. The petitions filed by KLO and ACRI demanded that PIBA return the social rights funds to these workers and to treat the regulations that allow such theft as null and void