Jordan Times
Thursday, August 26, 1999
Government deports 2,500 illegal workers since
January
By Mohammad Ben Hussein
AMMAN — The government, embroiled in a battle to replace foreign labour with Jordanians, has deported around 2,500 illegal workers since January in a governmental drive to organise the labour market, an official said on Wednesday.
Foreign Residence and Borders Department have caught 30,000 guest workers in violation of the Labour Law and Residency Law, said the official.
Twenty thousand of them did not have a work permit while the other 10,000 were in violation of the residency law, added the official, who requested anonymity.
The government, earlier this year, started a crackdown campaign against foreign labour in order to organise Jordan's labour market, suffering from a congestion of guest workers and a high percentage of unemployed Jordanians.
The Ministry of Interior estimates around one million Arab nationals to be working in the Kingdom, mostly Egyptians, Syrians and Iraqis.
The government earlier this year granted foreign workers a deadline of April 30 to rectify their legal status by obtaining work permits.
Some 160,000 workers have obtained work permits.
“Thirteen thousand of the violators rectified their legal status while 2,500 were deported by the department after they failed to do so,” the official told the Jordan Times.
The government, which is placing greater restrictions on work permits issued to guest workers, is eager to acquire accurate statistics on the estimated one million non-Jordanian labourers — at least 35 per cent of whom are believed to be jobless.
“More than 220,000 foreigners have legalised their residence status in accordance without the new law,” he added.
Under the new regulations, the first of their kind in the Kingdom, landlords and employers have to inform the nearest police station with details about the foreign employees in less than 48 hours. Owners of furnished apartments must inform police in less than 24 hours, they also have to inform the police immediately when the tenant leaves the rented apartment.
Landlords and employers, who fail to meet the new regulations, will face criminal charges for which the penalties range from imprisonment to monetary fines, while the foreigners will be deported immediately.
Labour officials and trade union leaders blamed the lack of organisation in the labour market on the abuse of loopholes in the Labour Law, which, when exploited, allow foreigners better access to the labour market.
“Arab nationals, mostly Egyptians, obtain permits to work in agriculture, but, in reality, they end up working in shops and restaurants,” said Bahjat Quteishat, head of the employment department at the Labour Ministry.
But the number of Egyptians seeking jobs in the Kingdom is on the rise, according to a report issued by the Central Bank of Jordan.
Egyptians made up 29 per cent of the 1.7 million tourists who arrived in the Kingdom between January and May, according to the report, published earlier this week.
In May alone, more than 91,000 Egyptians arrived and were registered with airport authorities as tourists, according to the CBJ report. The government says more than 60 per cent of an estimated 1 million illegal workers are Egyptians who arrive posing as tourists.
Egyptians do not need Jordanian visas.