Child labor rises in Jordan as pandemic adds to economic woes

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(Photo courtesy of the Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies)
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(Photo courtesy of the Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies)
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(Photo courtesy of the Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies)
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Updated 24 June 2021
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Child labor rises in Jordan as pandemic adds to economic woes

  • In a recent report on the World Day Against Child Labor, annually marked on June 12, Workers’ House, a local NGO specialized in labor rights, expected the number of working children in Jordan aged between 5 and 17 to reach 100,000

AMMAN: Twelve-year-old Mamdouh said he has been on a seven-day street shift selling gum and candy to cover the needs of his family living in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Jordan’s capital, Amman. 

“A small van drops us off here every day at 5 p.m. to sell gum and candies, and the driver comes at 10 p.m. to take us back to Wehdat,” Mamdouh said, accompanied by a 9-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy selling candy in Amman’s Al-Weibdeh neighborhood.    

Insisting that no picture of him be used under fears of labor ministry inspectors, Mamdouh said his 56-year-old father has forced him to quit school and work to help feed their family.

Mamdouh lives in Al-Wehdat refugee camp, the second largest camp for Palestinian refugees in Jordan.

“We are six — two boys and four girls — but my father only allows my older brother and sister to go to school,” Mamdouh said, again insisting that no photo of him or his friends be used in the report.

“You are not an inspector from the labor and social development ministries, are you?” Mamdouh asked before telling his story to Arab News.

Government inspectors were seen looking for child workers and beggars in Al-Weibdeh, one of Amman’s oldest and most famous neighborhoods.

In a recent report on the World Day Against Child Labor, annually marked on June 12, Workers’ House, a local NGO specialized in labor rights, expected the number of working children in Jordan aged between 5 and 17 to reach 100,000 by the end of 2021, signaling an increase of 25 percent from the latest figures recorded in 2016.

The report warned against a “worrying” rise in the number of children who are victims of child labor as a result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the subsequent economic distress and rise in poverty and unemployment rates in Jordan in 2020.

The unemployment rate in Jordan reached around 24 percent in the third quarter of 2020, up by 4.8 percent compared to the same period in 2019, according to official figures.

The Workers’ House report said that the pandemic has seen around 80,000 people lose their jobs in Jordan in 2020, with authorities forcing businesses to close in a bid to stem the spread of COVID-19. The organization added that more than 500,000 workers have been facing pay cuts since March 2020.

The organization also explained that the poverty rate in Jordan has climbed to 26 percent in 2020, prompting families, “in the absence of a social protection system,” to send their children to the labor market to secure their daily living.

The report called for updated data on the impact of the pandemic on child labor, adding that the latest survey was in 2016, in which the number of working children was placed at 76,000.

Citing the 2016 survey, the NGO said that, of the 76,000 working children aged between 5 and 17, 70,000 were illegally employed, with around 45,000 of them found working in hazardous environments.

The report said that 29 percent, 28 percent and 11 percent of the working children registered in 2016 were working in retail businesses and auto repair shops, agriculture, and construction, respectively. 

Labor Ministry Spokesman Mohammed Zyoud told Arab News that inspection teams have uncovered a total of 191 child labor cases from the 5,560 field visits they conducted during the first four months of this year.

He also said that the ministry’s inspectors had carried out a total of 11,952 and 7,143 field visits to businesses in 2020 and 2019 and discovered a total of 503 and 467 cases of child labor, respectively.

The spokesman also said that the ministry has taken a decision to intensify inspection campaigns and field visits during 2021 to curb child labor, which, he added, has been “increasing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying economic difficulties.”

During a recent seminar at Al-Rai Center for Strategic Studies, Labor Minister Yousef Shamali said that government inspectors working in the specialized unit for child labor carry out inspection campaigns annually on businesses across the kingdom to check on their abidance with the Jordanian labor law, which prohibits the employment of children under 16.

He also explained that the child laborers recovered by the inspectors are referred to the social protection center, where they receive educational and psychological rehabilitation to able to go back to school or vocational training to qualify them to join the labor market when they reach legal age.

Shamali also explained that the ministry set up an online database for child labor in 2018 and is financing the Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, implemented by the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization.

The International Labor Organization said that the influx of refugees from Syria to Jordan has exacerbated the situation of child labor, in terms of both magnitude and complexity, adding that it is supporting the government in its implementation of the National Framework to Combat Child Labor, adopted in 2011.


Lebanon’s new president says to visit Saudi Arabia on first official trip

Updated 11 January 2025
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Lebanon’s new president says to visit Saudi Arabia on first official trip

  • Lebanese leader tells crown prince that ‘Saudi Arabia would be the first destination in his visits abroad’

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s newly-elected president, Joseph Aoun, will visit Saudi Arabia following an invitation from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to a statement posted on the Lebanese presidency’s X account on Saturday.

Prince Mohammed has congratulated Aoun, during a phone call, on his election and conveyed to him the congratulations of Saudi King Salman.

The Crown Prince also expressed his sincere congratulations and hopes for success to Aoun and the people of Lebanon, with wishes for further progress and prosperity.

Aoun told the crown prince that “Saudi Arabia would be the first destination in his visits abroad,” it said, after the Saudi prince called to congratulate him on taking office on Thursday following a two-year vacancy in the position.

The statement did not specify a date for the visit.

Aoun, 61, was elected as the country’s 14th president by parliamentarians during a second round of voting on Thursday, breaking a 26-month deadlock over the position.

In his speech after taking his oath of office before parliament, he said that the country was entering a new phase.

The Mediterranean country has been without a president since the term of Michel Aoun – not related – ended in October 2022, with tensions between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and its opponents scuppering a dozen previous votes.


Syrian intelligence says it foiled Daesh attempt to target Damascus shrine

Updated 11 January 2025
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Syrian intelligence says it foiled Daesh attempt to target Damascus shrine

  • Sayyida Zeinab has been the site of past attacks on Shiite pilgrims by Daesh

DAMASCUS: Intelligence officials in Syria’s new de facto government thwarted a plan by the Daesh group to set off a bomb at a Shiite shrine in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, state media reported Saturday.

State news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed official in the General Intelligence Service, that members of the Daesh cell planning the attack were arrested. It quoted the official as saying that the intelligence service is “putting all its capabilities to stand in the face of all attempts to target the Syrian people in all their spectrums.”

Sayyida Zeinab has been the site of past attacks on Shiite pilgrims by Daesh — which takes an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam and considers Shiites to be infidels.

In 2023, a motorcycle planted with explosives detonated in Sayyida Zeinab, killing at least six people and wounding dozens a day before the Shiite holy day of Ashoura.

The announcement that the attack had been thwarted appeared to be another attempt by the country’s new leaders to reassure religious minorities, including those seen as having been supporters of the former government of Bashar Assad.

Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, was allied with Iran and with the Shiite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as well as Iranian-backed Iraqi militias.

Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, the former insurgent group that led the lightning offensive that toppled Assad last month and is now the de facto ruling party in the country, is a Sunni Islamist group that formerly had ties with Al-Qaeda.

The group later split from Al-Qaeda, and HTS leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa has preached religious coexistence since assuming power in Damascus.

Also Saturday, Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati arrived in Damascus to meet with Al-Sharaa.

Relations between the two countries had been strained under Assad, with Lebanon’s political factions deeply divided between those supporting and opposing Assad’s rule.


Lebanon PM visits Damascus on first such trip since before Syria war

Updated 11 January 2025
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Lebanon PM visits Damascus on first such trip since before Syria war

  • Najib Mikati is expected to hold talks with Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa

DAMASCUS: Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati arrived in Damascus Saturday in the first such visit since before civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, an AFP journalist reported.

His visit comes as the neighboring countries seek better relations after Islamist-led militants toppled longtime strongman Bashar Assad last month.

He is expected to hold talks with Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

The visit comes days after Lebanese lawmakers elected the country’s army chief Joseph Aoun as president, ending a more than two-year vacancy.

Deadlock between pro- and anti-Hezbollah blocs in parliament had scuppered a dozen previous attempts to fill the vacancy but the Shiite militant group emerged weakened from two months of full-fledged war with Israel late last year.

Syria was the dominant power in Lebanon for three decades under the Assad clan but withdrew its troops in 2005 in the face of international pressure over the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri.


Israel strikes Yemen Houthis, warns it will ‘hunt’ leaders

Updated 11 January 2025
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Israel strikes Yemen Houthis, warns it will ‘hunt’ leaders

  • Israeli military said fighter jets struck military targets belonging to Houthi regime
  • It said it also struck military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeida and Ras Issa

JERUSALEM: Israel struck Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday, including a power station and coastal ports, in response to missile and drone launches, and warned it would hunt down the group’s leaders.
“A short while ago... fighter jets struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and inland Yemen,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
It said the strikes were carried out in retaliation for Houthi missile and drone launches into Israel.
The statement said the targets included “military infrastructure sites in the Hizaz power station, which serves as a central source of energy” for the Houthis.
It said it also struck military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeida and Ras Issa.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement after the strikes, said the Houthis were being punished for their repeated attacks on his country.
“As we promised, the Houthis are paying, and they will continue to pay, a heavy price for their aggression against us,” he said.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would “hunt down the leaders of the Houthi terror organization.”
“The Hodeida port is paralyzed, and the Ras Issa port is on fire — there will be no immunity for anyone,” he said in a video statement.
The Houthis, who control Sanaa, have fired missiles and drones toward Israel since war broke out in Gaza in October 2023.
They describe the attacks as acts of solidarity with Gazans.
The Iran-backed rebels have also targeted ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, prompting retaliatory strikes by the United States and, on occasion, Britain.
Israel has also struck Houthi targets in Yemen, including in the capital.
Since the Gaza war began, the Houthis have launched about 40 surface-to-surface missiles toward Israel, most of which were intercepted, the Israeli army says.
The military has also reported the launch of about 320 drones, with more than 100 intercepted by Israeli air defenses.


West Bank family wants justice for children killed in Israel strike

Updated 11 January 2025
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West Bank family wants justice for children killed in Israel strike

  • Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 825 Palestinians in the territory, according to Health Ministry figures

TAMMUN, Plestinian Territories: Batoul Bsharat was playing with her eight-year-old brother Reda in their village in the occupied West Bank. Moments later, an Israeli drone strike killed him and two of their cousins.
“It was the first time in our lives that we played without arguing. It meant so much to me,” the 10-year-old said as she sat on the concrete ledge outside the family home in the northern village of Tammun where they had been playing on Wednesday.
At her feet, a crater no wider than two fists marked where the missile hit.
The wall behind her is pockmarked with shrapnel impacts, and streaks of blood still stain the ledge.
Besides Reda, Hamza, 10, and Adam, 23, were also killed.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday that it had struck “a terrorist cell” in Tammun but later promised an investigation into the civilian deaths.
Batoul puts on a brave face but is heartbroken at the loss of her younger brother.
“Just before he was martyred, he started kissing and hugging me,” she said.
“I miss my brother so much. He was the best thing in the world.”
Her cousin Obay, 16, brother of Adam, was the first to come out and find the bodies before Israeli soldiers came to take them away.
“I went outside and saw the three of them lying on the ground,” he said. “I tried to lift them, but the army came and didn’t allow us to get close.”
Obay said his elder brother had just returned from a pilgrimage to Makkah.
“Adam and I were like best friends. We had so many shared moments together. Now I can’t sleep,” he said, staring into the distance, bags under his eyes.
Obay said the soldiers made him lie on the ground while they searched the house and confiscated cellphones before leaving with the bodies on stretchers.
Later on Wednesday, the army returned the bodies, which were then laid to rest. On Thursday, Obay’s father, Khaireddin, and his brothers received condolences from neighbors.
Despite his pain, he said things could have been worse as the family home hosts many children.
“Usually, about six or seven kids are playing together, so if the missile had struck when they were all there, it could have been 10 children,” he said.
Khaireddin was at work at a quarry in the Jordan Valley when he heard the news. Adam had chosen to stay home and rest after his pilgrimage to Makkah.
He described his son as “an exceptional young man, respectful, well-mannered and upright,” who had “nothing to do with any resistance or armed groups.”
Khaireddin, like the rest of the Bsharat family, said he could not comprehend why his home had been targeted.
“We are a simple family, living ordinary lives. We have no affiliations with any sides or movements.”

Violence has soared in the West Bank since war broke out in Gaza with the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 825 Palestinians in the territory, according to Health Ministry figures.
As the Israeli army has stepped up its raids on West Bank cities and refugee camps, it has also intensified its use of air strikes, which were once a rarity.
A day before the Bsharat home was hit, a similar strike had struck Tammun.
Khaireddin regrets that the army made “no apology or acknowledgment of their mistake.”
“This is the current reality — there is no accountability. Who can we turn to for justice?“