Ministry tackles cases of child labour

He said that the inspection teams issued 242 violations and 259 warnings have been given to employers who violated the law by employment of children, adding that that the number of complaints and reports that the ministry dealt with reached 126 complaints and reports related to child labour. 

He stressed that the ministry, through the Department of Child Labour and Institutional Nurseries in the Central Inspection Directorate, will work during the current year 2024 to increase the number of campaigns and inspection visits to private sector establishments in various sectors and economic activities to ensure that they do not employ children, in addition to implementing a set of activities to raise awareness of the community and for parents in schools the danger of child labour. 

Commenting on the numbers, the founder and director of the Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies, Ahmad Awad, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday that “The efforts of the Ministry of Labour to uncover cases of child labour and provide statistics are appreciated, but they do not reflect the extent of child labour in Jordan”. 

“With poverty rates in Jordan rising to 24 per cent, child labour is expected to increase significantly,“ Awad said to The Jordan Times, adding that that the main reasons that cause children to engage in the labour market must be addressed, the first of which is the spread of poverty and low wages, in addition to the weak attractiveness of schools for children. “We must work to solve the reasons that push children out of school and encourage their families, in addition to fighting poverty by raising the level of wages and improving the school environment so that it is more attractive to children,” Awad added.