AMMAN –– The Labour Ministry has released a list of the names and nationalities of guest workers whose work permits expired by the end of 2013.
The new list, which the ministry published at the beginning of this month, includes 105,270 illegal guest workers, of whom nearly 60 per cent are Egyptian.
The report, posted on the ministry’s website, named 62,784 Egyptians whose work permits expired at the end of last year.
Sri Lankans constituted the second largest number of workers with expired permits after Egyptians (12,133), followed by Filipinos (7,840), Bangladeshis (7,461) and Indonesians (4,859).
With regard to illegal workers from other Arab countries, the ministry report named 2,224 labourers from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Palestine, Lebanon, Tunisia and Morocco.
The ministry said the work permits of 7,969 guest workers from various countries — such as China, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Ethiopia — also expired in late 2013.
This is the third time that the Labour Ministry has published the names of illegal guest workers on its website.
It previously issued a list of 92,837 guest workers whose permits became invalid by the end of 2012 and a list of 98,962 labourers whose work permits expired by the end of 2011.
Labour Ministry Secretary General Hamadah Abu Nijmeh told The Jordan Times late last year that there are around 265,000 guest labourers who have valid work permits and around 500,000 illegal workers.
Egyptians make up around 60 per cent of the guest labour force in Jordan, according to the official.
