‘13,000 permits issued to guest workers in 12 days’

AMMAN — The Ministry of Labour has issued 13,000 work permits to guest workers since the launch of a nationwide inspection campaign late last month, a government official said on Sunday.

Since February 25 and until Sunday morning, the ministry received JD3.5 million in fees for issuing new work permits to guest workers, the ministry’s assistant secretary general for field affairs, Ibrahim Saudi, said.

“The guest workers who rectified their status were from all nationalities; however, the majority of those who obtained new work permits were Egyptians, constituting 75 per cent,” Saudi told The Jordan Times.

The two-month campaign seeks to control and organise the labour market, limit the employment of guest workers with no work permits and identify the actual number of guest workers in the Kingdom, he underscored.

During the first month of the campaign, the ministry exempted employers from paying work permit fees retroactively, but during the second month, they will have to pay work permit fees for the previous and the new year, Saudi said.

The ministry is also carrying out inspection campaigns on employers, during which it urges those who employ illegal guest workers to rectify the status of their staff to avoid repercussions.

“Once the two-month campaign ends, the ministry will carry out extensive inspection campaigns and take strict legal measures against illegal guest workers and those who employ them,” Saudi added.

The inspection is targeting guest workers of all nationalities who collected their social security benefits after their work permits expired but did not leave the Kingdom, in addition to those who are still working although their contracts have expired and have failed to apply for new work permits, according to the ministry.

The inspection campaign also targets guest workers who moved from one sector to another except for those who moved from any sector into the agriculture sector or from the Qualifying Industrial Zones into other sectors.

The ministry apprehended around 29,221 illegal guest workers of different nationalities in 2014. Official figures estimate the number of guest workers in the Kingdom at almost 1 million, with Egyptians representing nearly two-thirds of them.