Authorities crack down on absconding domestic workers

AMMAN — Authorities have detained 30 domestic workers who absconded from their employers under an ongoing campaign to crack down on domestic workers violating the labour law or residency regulations.

The Labour Ministry’s inspection teams targeted Jabal Amman and Rainbow Street, among other areas, as locations where absconded domestic workers generally gather, according to the ministry.

“The ministry has put in place a comprehensive plan, in cooperation with the concerned authorities, to carry out inspections of domestic helpers in order to catch those violating the law or fleeing their employers to work in other jobs,” head of the ministry’s inspection department, Abdullah Jbour, said on Monday.

Jbour warned people against recruiting illegal domestic workers, indicating that employers found covering for or recruiting illegal workers will be held accountable, and will be responsible for paying deportation fees as well as costs related to  the duration of the illegal worker’s violation.

Meanwhile, head of the ministry’s domestic helpers’ department, Hayel Zaben, told The Jordan Times that the ministry will instantly deport illegal domestic workers when caught.

Zaben indicated that there was no exact figure of illegal domestic workers in the country, but that the ministry had registered over 50,000 domestic helpers.

The Domestic Helpers Recruitment Agencies Association recently said that there were “networks and unlicensed offices” that help domestic workers “secretly leave one job”, providing them with illegal work instead. 

The association has called on authorities and the Lower House to amend the syndicate’s law and increase penalties for violations, and warned the public against advertisements offering domestic services on a daily- or weekly-pay basis.

Domestic workers constitute 64.6 per cent of the 76,473 female guest workers in Jordan, according to a Sisterhood Is Global (SIGI) statement released late last year.

The institute indicated that most domestic helpers in Jordan work in Amman, Irbid, Balqa and Zarqa.

The largest number of domestic helpers in Jordan are from the Philippines (15,636), followed by Sri Lanka (3,742) and then Indonesia (1,233).

But SIGI said these figures do not reflect the actual number of domestic workers in Jordan, noting that many are not registered at the Labour Ministry and its directorates around the Kingdom.

Ahmad Awad, director of the Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies, indicated that it is the right of the state to regulate the labour market provided that it does not violate the rights of the workers or their employers.

It is the government’s duty to regulate the labour market and prevent foreign workers from working in the country without permits, and also to end the issue of domestic workers who abscond from their employers, Awad said.

He stressed that while the absconded domestic workers become violators of the law, some of them are also victims of human trafficking.

Domestic workers abscond from their employers for several reasons, such as maltreatment and a desire for better-paid work elsewhere, the analyst pointed out.

One problem is that some of the domestic workers who abscond from their employers get adopted by gangs that drop them off to work, pick them up at the end of the day and then take most of the money they earn, Awad underscored.

“There is a big question mark over the efficiency of the Labour Ministry’s campaigns on escaped domestic helpers and illegal guest workers. There is also weakness in the capabilities of the inspection teams and inhumane treatment of some of the caught illegal guest workers,” he said.

Awad called on the government to give the seized illegal guest workers the chance to settle their affairs in the country before getting deported, adding that the law also protects the rights of illegal guest workers.