Ministerial committee formed to follow up on Qatar's pledged job opportunities

AMMAN — The government announced on Wednesday the formation of a ministerial team to follow up on the job vacancies Qatar pledged to provide to Jordanians.

"We have formed a ministerial team today to look into the issue and details will be announced soon after our meetings with the Qatari side and in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other concerned stakeholders," Minister of Labour Samir Murad said in a Tweet on his official account on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Omar Razzaz warned on Tuesday of fake websites that promote job vacancies in Qatar, claiming that the jobs are part of the Qatari support to Jordan.

"We do not want our youth to be deceived… these vacancies the websites promote are not part of the 10,000 jobs pledged by Qatar to Jordan," Razzaz said in a press conference on Tuesday.

"These websites seek to make profits… A specialised committee is looking into these vacancies and will announce details and specifications," the premier said.

Several recruitment agencies launched campaigns on social media platforms over the past few days encouraging young Jordanians to apply for jobs in Qatar. 

The engagement with these campaigns and the volume of questions and comments they received by young Jordanians is "huge", Mohammad Naser, a social media expert, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

The Qatari embassy in Amman warned that some news websites and social media accounts promote links to apply for vacancies in Qatar, stressing that such links are invalid and are not authorised for receiving job applications.

"A joint committee was formed to look into the mechanisms to receive applications to benefit from the job vacancies announced by Qatar to Jordan," the embassy said in a statement on its official Twitter account this week.

Last week, Qatar announced that it would provide 10,000 jobs for Jordanians in the Gulf state, in addition to a package of investments in infrastructure projects in Jordan valued at $500 million.

The assistance was announced during a meeting between His Majesty King Abdullah and Qatari Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani in Amman.