AMMAN — The recent increase in the number of work permits for
Syrian refugees in Jordan is in large part attributable to the government’s 2021 decision to introduce flexible work permits, the
UNHCR said in a statement carried by Al-Ghad News.
اضافة اعلان
More than 62,000 work permits were issued last year,
compared to approximately 36,000 in 2020, according to the UNHCR.
Last year, the
Ministry of Labor signed an agreement
with the General Federation of Jordanian Trade Unions, which introduced
flexible work permits that grant refugees the right to work without being
associated with a specific employer; this allowed them to move between jobs
more easily.
Since the 2016 London conference to support Syrian
refugees, the government has issued some 252,000 permits — including 9,500
flexible permits — to Syrian refugees, according to Syrian Crisis Response
Department Director Hamdan Yaqoub.
Linda Al-Kalash, the director of
Tamkeen for Legal Aid and Human Rights, praised the rise in the number of work permits granted to
Syrians, but also underlined that the rights of some refugees have been
violated in regards to wages and increased working hours.
A recent report issued by the
International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Fafo Institute for Labor and Social Research, which
studies the changes that have taken place in Jordan since 2016, showed that the
working conditions of Syrian holders of valid work permits are better than
those of those without such permits.
The report also showed that Syrians’ current working
conditions are closer to the Jordanian counterpart’s conditions.
ILO Country Coordinator
for Jordan Frida Khan stressed that by obtaining a work permit greatly
increases the chances of a Syrian refugee’s working conditions improving.
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