Labour Ministry refutes ‘grossly inaccurate’ circulated claims about foreign work permits

AMMAN — The Ministry of Labour has announced that some official media outlets published “grossly inaccurate” information about the permit legalisation process for foreign workers as well as the number of permits issued this year.

Attributing the information to an anonymous source, a news report had said that the number of permits given to foreign workers amounted to 40,000 last month.

The report circulated on social media outlets after its publication, causing backlash from citizens at a time when the ministry has vowed to reduce foreign labour and utilise local talents instead.

Mohammad Khatib, spokesperson for the Ministry, told The Jordan Times that “the attribution of grossly inaccurate information to ‘anonymous sources’ is unacceptable, not only because the numbers are far from reality, but also because the ministry is open to responding to the press through its official channels”.

Khatib noted that, in actuality, 10,000 work permits were issued to foreign workers last month and that the ministry’s “reform process of giving priority to local labour is still among its top agendas for this year”.

He added: “The damage that some media outlets do is enormous. We received endless calls from concerned citizens who were worried that the job market will never favour them, which is the exact opposite of what is actually happening”.

The anonymous source had also claimed that the ministry’s policy in dealing with violators of work permits is “weak and gives space to more and more violations”.

The two-month notice period given to foreign workers in violation of permit regulations was said by the source to be “an opportunity for many violators to make their new permit last for two more months, as they purposely wait until the last week of the second month to renew it so that they have a year and two months instead of just a year until the next renewal.”

Khatib countered this claim by saying that procedures to rectify permit violations are “going according to plan, and are even better this year as they are truly organising the labour market”.

“The information about the exploitation of the post-permit renewal period is invalid,” he added.

He stressed that the Ministry of Labour is “exerting all efforts towards regulating the local market and only directing expatriate workers to professions that Jordanians do not accept at present”.

He demanded that the media investigate the accuracy of information and refer to official sources before publication.