At least 10,000 cars enter Jordan from S. Arabia over weekend

AMMAN — Over 10,000 cars entered the Kingdom from Saudi Arabia on Thursday and Friday through the Omari border crossing, a customs official said Saturday. 

Attallah Taani, director of the Jordan Customs Department (JCD) office at the border crossing, said the cars were carrying over 25,000 people, the majority of whom were Jordanian expatriates working in the Gulf. 

Taani told The Jordan Times over the phone that the number of passengers coming to the Kingdom through the Omari crossing, some 155 kilometres east of Amman, reached a record high, adding that the crossing has seen unprecedented movement over the past three days. 

"The majority of passengers were Jordanians working in five Gulf states who came through Saudi Arabia," he said, referring to Jordanians working in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, in addition to Saudi Arabia. 

Taani said the overload on customs services at the border crossing prompted the JCD to ask employees on leave to come to work. 

Fadel Bashabsheh, a public relations officer at the customs office, told The Jordan Times that there were no delays in offering services, as 15 windows were opened to facilitate the entry of visitors. 

"It was like all Jordanians in the Gulf were returning to Jordan on the same day," he said, describing the scene at the border crossing over the past three days. 

Official figures estimate the number of Jordanian expatriates at around 750,000, the majority of whom live in Arab Gulf states.

Over 300,000 Jordanian professionals are based in Saudi Arabia, followed by the UAE with nearly 200,000. 

Jordanians work as doctors, engineers, accountants and bankers in the Gulf, among other professions.

In the summer season, expatriates boost demand for most commodities in the domestic market in addition to their contribution in fuelling the property market. 

Jordanian professionals abroad are also an important source of foreign currency inflows into the Kingdom. 

According to Central Bank of Jordan figures, Jordanian expatriate remittances rose at the end of June by 3.1 per cent as they reached $1.850 billion compared with $1.794 billion during the same period last year.