A court rejects an appeal seeking to block authorities from deporting a Filipino woman who remained in Israel illegally after her visa expired, along with her children, from the country.

The appeals court gives Geraldine Esta and her children, 10-year-old Khean and 5-year-old Kathryn, 45 days to leave the country. It also agrees to release them on bail of NIS 15,000 ($4,285).

The Esta case is seen as a test for dozens of other Israeli-born children of illegal foreign workers who have grown up in the Jewish state, call it home and are now facing deportation.

Many female foreign workers who are still in the country illegally fall foul of regulations according to which foreign workers who become pregnant must send their babies home or they else cannot renew their visas and face arrest if they do not leave the country of their own accord.

Many stay on, doing menial jobs, to give their children a better life than they would get in the Philippines.