680,000 guest workers have no work permits — Murad

AMMAN — There has to be a national strategy that aims at gradually substituting guest workers with local workforce, especially since foreign workers’ numbers “threaten the Kingdom’s security, economic and social aspects”, Khaled Fanatsah, head of the Lower House Labour and Social Development Committee, said on Wednesday.

During a meeting with Labour Minister Samir Murad, Fanatsah added that unemployment among Jordanians is increasing, which highlights the lack of organisation in the labour market, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Murad on Tuesday said that some 680,000 guest workers, out of 1 million, do not have work permits and work illegally, noting that there are 280,000 to 300,000 unemployed Jordanians, with an unemployment rate of 18.5 per cent.

Fanatsah noted that guest workers’ remittances transferred outside the Kingdom stands at JD1.8 billion.