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AMMAN — As the effect of a depression and a very cold polar front is subsiding and a spell of freezing temperatures commenced, authorities on Wednesday urged farmers to take precautionary measures against frost.

Ministry of Agriculture Spokesperson Nimer Haddadin urged farmers, cattle breeders and owners of fisheries and poultry farms to follow the instructions of the ministry's directorates across the country to avoid losses due to freezing temperatures.

"So far, the very cold weather hasn’t affected crops or caused any damages, but since freezing temperatures are expected until the end of the week, farmers should continue taking precautionary measures," Haddadin told The Jordan Times.

Farmers should warm up greenhouses during the day and close them at night to preserve the heat, the ministry said, adding that when temperatures dip to around zero, farmers should also burn dry grass near the crops and slightly water them to mitigate the impact of frost spells.

In addition, cattle breeders are urged to visit the ministry's directorates and veterinary clinics to receive vaccines and instructions; to keep newborn animals inside the barns; and to secure water and fodder there as well.

Meanwhile, the Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) also warned farmers of possible frost formation and urged them to irrigate vegetables planted in open fields at night. 

In addition, farmers are also urged to use fans to cause wind circulation around the crops.

Ice formation is expected until Saturday night, according to the department, and temperatures will start rising gradually.

The weather on Thursday is forecast to be cold and winds will be northeasterly slow, according to the JMD, which said that the weather will become very cold at night.

Temperatures will be 7ºC during the day and 0ºC at night in the capital.

A slight rise in temperatures is expected on Friday, but the weather will remain cold across the country and relatively cold in the Jordan Valley and the Gulf of Aqaba. 

Winds will be easterly slow and temperatures will range between a high of 10ºC and a low of 2ºC in Amman, the JMD said.

Mercury levels on Saturday are expected to rise back to their annual average of 12.1ºC for this time of the year, the department said on its website. 

The weather will be relatively cold across the Kingdom and fair in the Jordan Valley and the Gulf of Aqaba.

At night, the weather will become cold and ice formation is forecast, the JMD said, adding that temperatures will be 12ºC during the day, dropping to 4ºC at night in Amman.   

AMMAN — The army said on Wednesday that 59 Syrian refugees entered Jordan in the previous 24 hours.

Border Guards transferred the new arrivals to shelters and camps, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Royal Medical Services personnel treated the injured.

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Wednesday stressed that weather forecast bulletins issued by the Jordan Meteorological Department should be accurate and credible as much as possible, pointing out that inaccuracies result in large losses to the economy, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

During a visit to the JMD, the premier warned that inaccurate forecasts disrupt the work of various sectors, calling on all meteorology websites to be extra careful in this regard. Ensour stressed the government's readiness to provide the JMD with the latest weather forecasting technology.

AMMAN — The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in its Tuesday session, agreed to accept the Kingdom's Parliament as a partner for democracy, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Wednesday.

At the session in Strasbourg, Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh thanked the assembly for accepting Jordan as a partner and stressed the Kingdom's seriousness in building a democratic system that achieves national goals.

He said the system shall preserve the momentum of the reform and improvement programmes in spite of the changes in the region and their repercussions on the Kingdom.

Tarawneh's speech covered the draft election law, the Syrian crisis and its repercussions, political solutions and sectarian conflicts in the region, the Palestinian cause and Israeli violations, and all sorts of efforts to combat terrorism.

AMMAN — The Thursday visit by the chief of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is aimed at showing the agency’s support for Jordan as it hosts a large number of Syrian refugees, according to an official at the agency.

ILO Director General Guy Ryder is due to visit Jordan on Thursday to examine first-hand the effects of the Syria refugee crisis on Jordan’s labour market, according to ILO Assistant Director General and Regional Director for Arab States Ruba Jaradat.

The ILO is aware of the difficulties that the Kingdom is facing, especially host communities, Jaradat told The Jordan Times over the phone this week, adding: “We will support the government in its plan.”

“We work with the international community to support Jordan,” Jaradat said prior to Ryder’s visit.

The Kingdom hosts some 1.3 million Syrians, with almost half of them registered as refugees with the UNHCR. Hosting this large number of refugees has strained the country’s infrastructure, services and job market.

Ryder’s visit to Jordan takes on added significance ahead of the Syria Donors Conference, slated to take place in London on February 4, according to an ILO statement.

The objective of the London conference is not only to raise funding for humanitarian efforts in Syria, but also to provide increased support for Syria's neighbouring countries with a focus on job opportunities and education for refugees and the local hosting populations, the statement added.

In response to The Jordan Times’ questions via e-mail, the ILO said its future initiatives in Jordan will focus on a range of activities that continue to address the root causes of persistent challenges facing Syrian refugees and host communities in accessing decent jobs. 

The agency said it will focus on advocating for the integration of Syrian refugees into the labour market “that in return will benefit the Jordanian economy”, as well as continue working with social partners on bolstering livelihoods for Jordanian communities hosting refugees. 

“This includes collaborating with the government on ways to ease the procedures by which Syrians obtain work permits, especially in sectors open to non-Jordanians and those which are generally less attractive to Jordanians,” the organisation told The Jordan Times.

The ILO is also encouraging the employment of Syrians in selected industries in qualifying industrial zones to provide the labour supply needed to support sectors that contribute to Jordan’s economic growth. 

In addition, it will continue to work on initiatives to help the most vulnerable of Jordanian societies gain access to employment and income.

The ILO is also working on establishing joint business ventures between host community members and Syrian refugees. 

These joint ventures, according to the agency, will allow for local business owners to expand their outreach within the camps and for the refugees to find markets outside them. 

The ventures will also have a conflict prevention impact by bringing together the interests of the Jordanian and refugee communities, the ILO said, and the implementation of these business plans will also benefit from technical support.

Another planned activity entails establishing refugee-operated cooperatives to advocate for an improved regulatory environment and provide job-matching services for temporary jobs in targeted sectors. 

The cooperative will be hiring refugees as well as proposing their services for temporary employment to employers in selected sectors, easing the work permit issuance process by disseminating clear instructions to the labour directorates in the field around the Kingdom and specific guidelines within refugee communities, according to the agency.

Another planned ILO programme includes expanding employment-intensive investment to create job opportunities for host communities and Syrian refugees as well as enhance local infrastructure in affected areas. 

In collaboration with the government, the ILO proposes to create immediate emergency jobs for both Syrian refugees and host communities, by improving infrastructure around development zones and facilitating investments; building, rehabilitating and maintaining existing schools, hospitals and training centres; and rehabilitating roads.

Meanwhile, since it launched its response to the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan in 2013, the ILO has initiated a series of projects aimed at supporting Syrian refugees and host communities. 

These projects focused on building the resilience of host communities to facilitate access to employment; strengthening institutional capacity and coordination to combat unacceptable forms of work with a focus on child labour; and supporting policy development to ensure an employment-rich national response, the agency said.

AMMAN — Jordan’s performance in Transparency International’s 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index has registered an improvement compared to last year.

Jordan ranked 45 among 168 countries in the index, which measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring 53 out of 100, along with Mauritius and Namibia, according to the index released Wednesday.

Last year, the Kingdom ranked 55 among 175 countries in the index, scoring 49 out of 100.

Denmark ranked first with a score of 91, followed by Finland (90) and Sweden (89), while North Korea and Somalia were at the bottom of the list, scoring eight out of 100.

The Kingdom’s score exceeded the average regional score of 39 out of 100, which fell four points below the global average score of 43 out of 100. 

In the Cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Wednesday, Public Sector Development Minister Khleef Al Khawaldeh presented Jordan’s performance in the global index.

He said Jordan’s performance is “good” when compared to the 168 countries included in the index, as the evaluation of anti-corruption efforts in the Kingdom are better than 68 per cent of the countries surveyed.

Meanwhile, he highlighted Jordan’s potential to achieve further progress in the index over the upcoming few years in light of “continuous and consistent” efforts, according to a statement sent to The Jordan Times.

The minister attributed Jordan’s four-point-progress over last year’s score to the collective efforts aiming at enhancing transparency, integrity and accountability in public agencies, through the adoption of several programmes and initiatives.     

He commended the role of the Royal committee to follow up on the implementation of the National Integrity Charter in improving Jordan’s performance in the index.

“Despite the significance of global indices, the greatest aim of the national anti-corruption efforts is improving the efficiency and the effectiveness of the state’s institutions in a matter that reflects positively on the services provided equally to citizens and investors and enhances development,” he said.

On a regional scale, Jordan ranked fourth after Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Israel, while Sudan and Somalia ranked the lowest in the region.

The report cited political conflicts in a number of countries in the region as a contributing factor to a decline in efforts to strengthen institutions and enhance anti-corruption efforts.

“As many states may feel confronted by existential threats, it is more important than ever to make combating corruption a top priority,” the report said.

Meanwhile it commended a “slight” improvement in the performance of Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The report placed emphasis on the need for anti-corruption efforts and development to be interlinked, especially with the inclusion of  fighting corruption among the new Sustainable Development Goals.

“Citizens urgently need their governments to move beyond conceptualisation to actually taking long-term action,” according to the report, which highlighted a need to further engage civil society in the fight against corruption.

AMMAN — The government in 2015 missed an opportunity “to remove vague and overly broad charges in the country’s Penal Code and counterterrorism law that are used to curtail free expression”, Human Rights Watch has said.

In its 2016 World Report, the group called for revising the Anti-Terrorism Law and the Penal Code to better safeguard human rights, while praising progress made in this file.

Meanwhile, the government is currently reviewing the report, an official said. 

“We are reviewing the report with the concerned government committees and we will coordinate our work to follow up on the points mentioned there,” said Basil Tarawneh, the government’s coordinator on human rights, on Wednesday.

The official stressed that the Jordanian government is keen on protecting the human rights and dignities of people in Jordan.

“Jordan prosecuted activists, dissidents, and journalists for speech offenses, relying largely on 2014 amendments to its counterterrorism law that broadened the definition of terrorism and included acts such as ‘disturbing [Jordan’s] relations with a foreign state’,” HRW charged.

“Jordan’s concerns over its security situation shouldn’t translate into branding journalists and dissidents as security threats merely for doing their jobs or expressing themselves peacefully,”  Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East HRW director, was quoted as saying in a statement.

“Jordan should revise its terrorism law and penal code to remove vague language used to limit peaceful speech,” Whitson added.

In the 659-page World Report 2016, its 26th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries, according to the HRW statement. 

Jordan curtailed media freedom in 2015 by detaining and bringing charges against at least nine journalists and writers, in some cases under the counterterrorism law, the HRW statement said. 

It added that the government failed to amend or remove “articles long used by authorities to limit free expression” when a Justice Ministry committee issued in May a proposed penal code overhaul that would amend at least 180 articles of the 1960 law.

The statement went further to criticise the execution of 13 people, including two Iraqis, in December 2014 and February 2015.

The watchdog also underlined the government’s handling of the crossing of Syrian refugees into Jordan.

Jordan hosted over 633,000 Syrian refugees in 2015, the statement said, referring to those registered with the UNHCR, while the actual number of Syrians in Jordan is around 1.3 million, around 85 per cent of whom live in host communities and urban centres. 

“Beginning in March, Jordanian authorities severely restricted informal eastern border crossings, stranding hundreds of Syrians in remote desert areas just inside Jordan’s border for days and weeks with limited access to food, water, and medical assistance,” according to the HRW statement. 

Officials have said that as this group comes from areas in northeast Syria under Daesh control, screening needs longer time, adding that 50-100 people are allowed into Jordan every day, while military and government agencies, along with NGOs, are supplying these refugees with essential relief aid, including food and blankets. 

Moreover, HRW charged that the Jordanian authorities in 2015 initiated a “re-verification process” for all Syrians living in urban communities, requiring Syrians to prove they had proper documentation and legal status in order to obtain a service card that will later be required to receive humanitarian assistance, access medical care, or enrol children in public schools. 

The re-verification process adversely affected undocumented Syrians and those who left refugee camps irregularly, leading to cases of forced encampment in largely closed refugee camps, HRW said.

Aid workers and Syrian refugees confirmed that deportations of Syrians and Palestinians back to Syria occurred during the year, the statement added.

“Jordan blocks Palestinians from Syria from entering the country, and detains and deports back to Syria Palestinians who enter at unofficial border crossings using forged Syrian identity documents, or those who enter illegally via smuggling networks,” HRW said.

Turning to domestic workers, HRW said Jordan hosted around 80,000 migrant domestic workers in 2015, mostly from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. 

Nongovernmental organisations repeatedly referred domestic workers who had suffered multiple abuses to Labour Ministry investigators who, however, rarely classified them as victims of the crime of trafficking, HRW claimed. 

Instead, it added, they treated each aspect of abuse, such as non-payment of salaries, separately, sometimes even detaining workers for “escaping” employers.

Meanwhile, HRW criticised Jordan for the state’s failure to grant  citizenship to spouses and children of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians.

But HRW praised the government for introducing special privileges for non-citizen children of Jordanian women, including free education and access to health services in government institutions, as well as provision of Jordanian ID cards and drivers’ licences.

Penal Code articles 98 and 340, which allow reduced sentences for perpetrators of “honour crimes”, remained in force, HRW stated. 

News reports indicated that at least 10 women and girls were killed by male family members in 2015, including a woman shot four times by her father after leaving her family home and reportedly having a relationship with a man her family refused to let her marry, according to HRW.  

Perpetrators of torture or other ill-treatment appeared to enjoy impunity due to the authorities’ reliance on special police prosecutors and judges to investigate allegations against, prosecute, and try fellow officers, HRW stated. 

At the Police Court, where many such cases are heard, “two out of three sitting judges are serving police officers appointed by the police, and authorities rarely release information on the results of Police Court trials”. 

“To date, HRW has not received evidence that a police or intelligence officer has ever been convicted of torture under article 208 of the Penal Code,” the organisation claimed.

AMMAN — Finance Minister Omar Malhas on Wednesday met with Eric Meyer, deputy assistant secretary for Africa and the Middle East at the US treasury department, and reviewed economic challenges facing the Kingdom.

The meeting also addressed means to further develop economic and financial Jordanian-US relations and benefit from US expertise in public debt administration, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Malhas thanked the US government for its decision to increase the volume of assistance to the Kingdom this year. Meyer voiced his country’s appreciation of Jordan’s economic and political reform, Petra reported.

AMMAN — Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs Khaled Kalaldeh on Wednesday stressed the importance of the draft elections law in enabling political parties to be an active part of the Lower House, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

During a meeting with Christian Berger, the director for the Middle East and North Africa in the European External Action Service, Kalaldeh said the government is implementing its political reform agenda that focuses on decentralisation. Berger voiced the EU’s interest in continuing to support Jordan, especially in fields related to political reform.

AMMAN — With temperatures expected to drop below zero and rain and snowfall forecast to peter out starting Wednesday evening, authorities on Tuesday warned the public of ice on roads.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour decided to delay the start of working hours at public departments to 10am on Wednesday and Thursday, while departments in Karak, Maan and Tafileh will be off on Wednesday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Central Bank of Jordan Governor Ziad Fariz also decided to delay the start of banks’ working hours until 10am on Wednesday and Thursday. Banks in Karak, Maan and Tafileh will be closed on Wednesday due to the weather conditions, according to Petra.

Temperatures during the night on Wednesday will drop to below zero across the Kingdom, Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) Director General Mohammad Samawi said, noting that nighttime mercury levels in the high mountains, including Al Sharah mountain range in the south, will drop to -5ºC at night, while in the capital, temperatures will drop to -2ºC in its eastern parts and -3ºC in its western parts.

"A spell of freezing temperatures will start once rain and snowfall stop. Roadway icing is expected to start as early as 5pm in areas located 700-800m above sea level. In addition, traffic movement in the morning will be difficult, as road icing will continue until 9:30-10am," Samawi told The Jordan Times.

He underscored that ice on roads will continue forming until the end of the week.

The Civil Defence Department (CDD) was scheduled to use the early warning siren system on Tuesday evening to transmit warning messages to the public regarding ice formation.

"The CDD will sound the sirens today evening at 6pm in the capital to warn people of ice formation tonight [Tuesday] and tomorrow [Wednesday] morning," the CDD said in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times. 

Samawi highlighted that very cold and cloudy to partly cloudy weather is forecast for Wednesday, when snow showers are expected on high mountains, while by nightfall, snowfall will gradually stop and clouds will gradually clear, giving way to ice formation across the Kingdom.

The Greater Amman Municipality said Tuesday it is spraying salt on the capital's main streets and on overpasses to minimise the effects of ice formation, Petra reported.

Temperatures during the day will be 3ºC, dropping to -1ºC in Amman at night, while winds will be northwesterly moderate to slow, according to the JMD.

On Thursday, very cold weather is also expected, with ice and frost formation forecast. Winds will be easterly slow and temperatures will range between a high of 5ºC and a low of -1ºC in Amman.

The weather will remain cold on Friday, according to the department, which said that ice and frost formation are forecast to continue.

Temperatures will be 7ºC during the day, dropping to zero at night in the capital, the JMD said, while winds will be southeasterly slow.

The depression and the cold polar front that began to affect the country on Saturday brought rain and snow to different parts of the Kingdom.

The Water Ministry said on Tuesday on its website that the country's 10 major dams now hold around 50 per cent of their total capacity of 325 million cubic metres (mcm).

In a statement carried by Petra, Water Minister Hazem Nasser said rain and snow channelled 9.3mcm of water into the dams. 

Meanwhile, the JMD said that by Tuesday morning, the highest snow accumulation was recorded in Arrabeh in Karak Governorate, where it reached 22.5cm.

Ras Munif in Ajloun Governorate came next with snow accumulation reaching 11cm, followed by Sweileh (9cm), Tafileh Governorate (8cm), the capital (5-8cm), Shobak in Tafileh Governorate (5cm), Salt in Balqa Governorate (7cm) and Wadi Musa in Maan Governorate (1cm).

Snow accumulation can be higher in areas where the JMD doesn’t have stations, Samawi said.

By Tuesday afternoon, the Public Security Department said that all of the Kingdom's roads were open to traffic.