‘1,157 establishments closed for labour violations this year’

AMMAN — The Ministry of Labour closed down more than 1,000 institutions in violation of the Labour Law during the first half of this year, according to an official statement released Thursday.

A total of 1,157 institutions were closed down until July 10 for employing illegal guest workers, according to a statement issued by the ministry.

Hamadah Abu Nejmeh, the ministry’s secretary general, said the institutions were shut down under an ongoing national inspection campaign which seeks to uncover labour violations.

“Inspection teams carried out 45,337 visits since the start of this year, which resulted in issuing 10,382 tickets, worth JD2 million,” Abu Nejmeh noted.

Under the campaign, a total of 3,565 institutions received warnings of closure unless they rectifed their situation, he said.

Institutions hiring illegal guest workers are fined JD200-JD500, according to the Labour Law.

Meanwhile, the ministry cancelled a decision to deport 208 guest workers after they rectified their situation and paid their dues, which totalled JD416,000.

Guest workers must obtain a work permit, otherwise, they are deported.
Official figures indicate that there are around 265,000 guest labourers who have valid work permits and around 500,000 illegal workers.

A total of 69.20 per cent of the foreign workers in Jordan are Egyptians, while 10.66 per cent are from Bangladesh, 4.89 per cent from the Philippines, 4.66 per cent from Sri Lanka and 2.48 per cent from Syria.