Farmers’ union says gov’t measures on guest workers ‘not sufficient’

AMMAN — The Jordan Valley Farmers Union on Monday expressed disappointment in the Labour Ministry’s measures to ease restrictions on the recruitment of guest workers.

“It is unfortunate that the ministry came up with such decisions following weeks of protests, meetings and deliberations with the farmers. We do not welcome its new decisions,” the union’s president, Adnan Khaddam, told The Jordan Times.

The ministry in June halted the recruitment of new guest workers in the agricultural sector, but on Sunday it eased restrictions after protests by farmers, who said that a shortage of workers was causing losses to the sector. 

Under the new decisions, farmers can recruit guest workers with valid work permits at farms owned or rented by the farmer, provided that the land is cultivated, in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Farmers can also recruit guest workers to replace former employees who have left the country, but they must provide evidence from the Public Security Department’s borders and residence directorates to prove that the departing worker permanently left Jordan after August 15. 

The work permit for both the departing and the new guest worker must be registered under the name of the same employer, the ministry said in a statement. 

The measures are intended to protect farmers and workers, while regulating the labour market, the ministry said. 

But Khaddam said that the new decisions did not serve farmers’ interests.

The issue of guest workers with permits to work in agriculture who move illegally to other sectors should not be resolved at the expense of farmers, who are “already suffering”, the union official said. 

“We hope that the ministry is aware that its decisions will cause a drop in production at the Jordan Valley as of this season. We demand that the ministry terminates its decision to stop bringing new guest labourers into the Kingdom,” Khaddam underscored.

There are more than 800,000 Egyptian workers in Jordan, 100,000 of whom have agricultural permits, Labour Minister Ali Ghezawi said on Monday at a meeting with representatives of the commercial sector in the northern governorate of Irbid.

Of these 100,000, only 30 per cent are working in the agricultural sector, the minister said, stressing that the government is cracking down on the illegal business of trading in work permits, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Over the past three months, 4,700 guest workers have been deported, he noted.