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AMMAN — Countries whose markets were directly affected by the refugee crisis should resort to untraditional frameworks to regulate their labour markets, Labour Minister Nidal Katamine said Sunday.

Speaking at the 43rd Arab Conference in Cairo, the minister linked the recovery of labour markets in Jordan — and other Arab countries affected by regional political and security crises — with uprooting the factors that caused these crises, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He added that a country like Jordan, whose economy is suffering from the repercussions of hosting Syrian refugees, and receives little international support, will find itself compelled to integrate Syrian refugees into its labour market within a balanced plan.  

AMMAN — The Public Sector Development Ministry will hold workshops for ministries and public departments on how to transfer the content of assessment reports issued by the King Abdullah II Centre for Excellence into development action plans, Minister Khleef Al Khawaldeh said Sunday.

He added that the forum of government leaders, which will be held in April 30, will include a presentation by the centre on the results of assessment reports and identifying institutions whose results declined, as well as providing recommendations to address shortcomings, according to a ministry statement. 

AMMAN — Around 3,400 Arab citizens join terrorist organisations annually as a consequence of following online pages or hashtags that promote extremist ideologies, officials from the Preventive Security Department’s Community Peace Centre said in a discussion on Saturday. 

The event, held at YWCA Jordan, suggested ways of countering extremism and raising awareness on online recruitment strategies used by terrorist groups to persuade young citizens to embrace and promote their ideologies.

Captain Omar Khalayleh said most of the young people lured into joining terrorist groups are told how perfect life is “on the other side, where justice prevails”, but when they move to the areas under the control of terrorists, they are shocked by exactly an opposite reality. 

The most targeted age group is between 20 and 25 years old, he said.

“The youth during those years have a passion to rush [into] adventures; it is difficult to control them and easy to instill ideology in their minds,” he told The Jordan Times on the sideline of the event, where the audience consisted mainly of mothers.

When notified on a close family member or a friend who is willing to join terrorist groups, he said, dialogue is the best way to solve the problem and eventually flush out the extremist thoughts injected in their minds. 

“Anyone can be targeted by extremists and if family members talk to them with honesty and openness, they are likely to open and talk about the issue without constraints,” he said, adding that war in our time is mainly a war of ideologies.

Lt. Khalil Sagarat, director of the cooperation department, said the issue of extremism starts by “taking Koranic verses out of their context and misinterpreting them to serve terrorists’ agendas”.

 He stressed that the importance of reporting any extremist behaviour to concerned authorities, adding: “As a tribal society, we find it very difficult to report anyone related or close to us, yet, not reporting means the family or society are accomplices.” 

Ameera Yaaqbeh, the executive director of the Arab Student Aid International Organisation, said the main problem lies within the curricula taught to students in schools.

“We should start reforms by detecting and addressing the flaws in our educational system, which sometimes teaches students to exclude ‘the other’,” she said.

From the Preventive Security Department’s information technology and social media office, Lt. Mohammad Jarrah said the average online recruitment process takes around five to six months. 

“It is not an overnight course; extremists instill their ideologies gradually, with one or two posts per day, until the [page or website] starts attracting like-minded people,” he told The Jordan Times.

“Extremist ideologies are sometimes promoted through fake accounts on social media networks,” Jarrah added. “They target the youth by pretending to have similar interests, such as university subjects or sports.”

There are around 90,000 pages in the Arab world that promote Daesh’ extremist ideologies to young citizens, with more than 40,000 non-Arab pages preaching the same ideas, according to the official.

He added that violent online games are also used for online recruitment since the chat feature in the games is not monitored, and “violent” gamers can be easily persuaded to join real life battles.

Lt. Mohammad Rbeihat, the department’s director of the research office, told The Jordan Times that the highest percentage of online recruitment in Jordan was recorded in the city of Jerash, followed by Ruseifa.

In the next few months, Khalayleh said, a centre will be opened in Amman to rehabilitate extremists in the Kingdom, with the help of specialised people whether in religious or social issues. 

AMMAN – Ambassador Alice G. Wells has joined Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Maha Ali in welcoming the arrival at the Port of Aqaba of the second and final wheat delivery of 47,500 metric tonnes through the US Department of Agriculture’s Food for Progress Programme. 

The first shipment arrived in February to complete the donation valued at $25.1 million from the US to Jordan, a statement from the US embassy in Amman said.

The government will use the proceeds from the wheat’s monetisation to undertake a number of agricultural and irrigation projects aimed at improving agricultural productivity and stimulating economic growth, said the statement, which was e-mailed to The Jordan Times on Saturday, adding the projects are expected to increase agricultural yields and expand Jordan’s agricultural exports.

The assistance comes in addition to the over $1.6 billion in bilateral assistance allocated for Jordan in 2016, the embassy said, indicating that the recent shipment is the third US wheat grant in the past five years, following a 2011 grant valued at $19 million and a 2012 grant valued at $17 million. The US Food for Progress Programme helps developing countries and emerging democracies modernise and strengthen their agricultural sectors, according to the statement.

Jordan imports over 96 per cent of its wheat needs as domestic production covers only around 4 per cent of demand.

In 2014, Jordan imported over 1 million tonnes of wheat at a cost of more than $294 million, and imported 750,000 tonnes of barley at a cost of around $193 million.

AMMAN — Authorities have uncovered 90 violations on water networks and resources during the past two weeks in west Amman's Wadi Al Seer area, an official at the Ministry of Water and Irrigation said on Saturday.

The violators diverted water from main pipelines and dug illegal wells, according to the official, who noted that the offenders were diverting the water to irrigate crops and sell water via tankers.

In addition, the ministry and security forces sealed 12 illegal wells in different parts of the country during the past two weeks, thus raising the number of sealed illegal wells since the launch of the national crackdown on water theft in 2013 to 747, the official, who preferred to remain unnamed, told The Jordan Times.   

The ministry banned the drilling of wells in 1997 to curb random pumping of water and preserve aquifers from depletion and salinity. Its estimates indicate that there are still 1,100-1,200 illegal wells across the country.

Sealing illegal wells and stopping attempts to dig new ones across the country have resulted in saving 80mcm of underground water over the past three years, while ending violations on water networks and resources has succeeded in saving 30mcm of freshwater that was being diverted from main carriers, according to recent figures from the ministry.

"Also during the past two weeks, we have dismantled 607 illegal fixtures across the Kingdom, thus the number of recorded violations on the water network and resources increased to 22,305 since the campaign was launched," the official said.

In the Jordan Valley, authorities ended 344 violations on the 110-kilometre-long King Abdullah Canal, which is supplied by the Yarmouk River to irrigate 40 per cent of the valley's arable lands and provide the capital with some 40 per cent of its water needs after processing the water at the Zai Water Treatment Plant.

The ministry is paying hundreds of thousands of dinars every month to implement the ongoing campaign, as it entails the deployment of technical teams, new technologies and heavy machinery to remove violations, while the Jordan Valley Authority is spending JD500,000 every year to replace and install new fences, security systems and warning signs on King Abdullah Canal and the dams, officials at the ministry said recently.

The amended Water Authority of Jordan Law stipulates stiffer penalties against violators.
Those who abuse water carriers and mains, wastewater, pumping, purification or desalination stations, or pollute water resources, pipes or stations used for drinking water, and dig or are involved in the digging of wells without obtaining a licence, face a prison sentence of up to five years and fines up to JD7,000.

In addition, violators of water and waste water projects are jailed for up to three years and fined a maximum of JD5,000 under the law.
All penalties are doubled in the case of repeated offences.

AMMAN – Cadres of the Civil Defence Department (CDD) dealt with more than 117 various accidents over the weekend that resulted in four deaths and 90 injuries. 

The CDD media office told The Jordan Times over the phone Saturday that the accidents included traffic and fire cases across the Kingdom.  

The deaths were resulted from car accidents in Amman, an officer at the media office said. 

A two-year-old girl died and four others were injured on Saturday in the Northern Badia's Manarah area when two vehicles collided. The injured were reported in fair conditions, the CDD said. 

A man died and two others were injured in a two-car collision in Amman's Dahiyat Al Yasmeen neighbourhood, said the CDD officer, adding the injured were taken by rescue staff to Al Hayat Hospital where the injured were listed in a critical condition. 

The officer noted that two Iraqi nationals were killed in a car accident in Amman Saturday when their car overturned in Muhajireen area. 

Also in Amman, four people were slightly injured in another collision that occured near the 7th Circle in west Amman. CDD staff administered first aid and took rushed the wounded to a hospital.

In Zarqa, some 22 kilometres east of Amman, six people were also injured in a road accident.

AMMAN — The Education Ministry on Saturday announced the names of private schools, which still violate the capacity limits as stated in their licences.

The announcement came after a deadline set for violators to rectify their situations ended.

The list consists of 45 schools, constituting less than 4 per cent of the total number of private schools in Jordan of 1,281, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Some of these school accommodate 300 per cent of the number of students they are allowed to admit, the ministry said. 

AMMAN – Mubadarah Lower House bloc members met on Saturday with residents of Jerash at the city hall, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Deputy Munir Zawaydah, the bloc’s head, said that Mubadarah is an initiative that works to find solutions to problems related to economic, educational and renewable energy issues.

MP Wafaa Bani Mustafa outlined the mission of Mubadarah, explaining that the bloc seeks a “real positive engagement with the government to solve various national issues”, noting that it organises such meetings with residents across the Kingdom to listen to their point of views on issues of national interest and adopt some of these ideas.

The group is mulling evolving into a political party, she said. 

AMMAN – Tourism Minister Nayef Al Fayez on Saturday asserted the importance of partnership between public and private sectors, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The ministry is committed to enhancing this partnership in a way that involves all levels of cooperation including developing the national tourism strategy of 2016-2020 and implementing it, the minister added.

AMMAN — The Social Security Corporation (SSC) on Saturday announced that persons working for ministries, public institutions and universities under temporary contracts are subject to the Social Security Law. SSC Spokesperson Musa Sbeihi was quoted in a statement as stressing that these employees are entitled to social security coverage as per the law, expressing dismay over some state agencies’ failure to abide by these regulations.

He also said that it is the SSC’s legal committees that have the power to decide on the eligibility of subscribers to social security and “not these public institutions”. Sbeihi also called on this segment of workers to contact the corporation to file complaints in case their employers delayed their applications.