76 thousand child workers in Amman 

 Amman - AlAnbat - Alaa Allan 

A position paper issued by the Phenix  Center for Economic and Informatics Studies noticed occasion to the world day of combat child labor that the reality of the social-economic conditions is stronger than the Jordanian legislations and policies that have prevented child labor , where Jordan's clear legislative provisions prohibiting child labor did not prevent the expansion of child labor in Jordan.

The paper that AlAnbat received a copy of it clarified that the most recent statistical indicators which prepared by the international labor organization in cooperation with ministry of labour and the center of the strategic studies in Jordan in 2016 , that the number of the child workers around 76 thousand , but the children whom that applied  the  criteria for child labour around 70 thousand, And the number of children working in hazardous work is about 45 thousand,The standards for child labor are all children under the age of 16, children aged 16-17 working more than 26 hours a week, as well as children under the age of 18 and working in hazardous work.

According to these indicators, the increase in child labor in Jordan compared to statistical indicators nearly ten years ago, reaching 33 thousand children in 2006, which indicate that child labor almost doubled between Jordanians. Where the number of Jordanian children of all working children 80% by 60.8 thousand,While the number of working children from Syrians and other nationalities reached 20% by 15.2 thousand. The percentage of working girls out of all working children is 11.7%.

The paper pointed out that the Jordanian legislation is compatible in the area of ​​child labor to a large extent with the standards contained in the relevant international conventions, as the Jordanian Labor Law No. (8) of 1996 and the amendments thereto,Prohibits the employment of children and juveniles,Article 73 of this law prohibits the employment of juveniles (children) who have not attained the age of sixteen years in any way,Article 74 of the same Act prohibits the employment of juveniles who have not completed the age of eighteen years in hazardous or harmful work.

This is in line with the international standards contained in the international conventions related to the abolition and reduction of child labor, the most important of which is the Convention on the Rights of the Child of the United Nations in 1989 and entered into force in 1990,As well as some ILO Conventions of the Minimum Age Convention No. 138, the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention No. 182 and the Forced Labor Convention No. 29.

The paper pointed out that despite clear provisions in Jordanian legislation prohibiting the employment of children who have not yet reached the age of 16, and that children aged 16-18 are not employed in hazardous work,But the reality is stronger than the various legislations and policies. The number of children widely distributed in the Jordanian labor market and the new statistical indicators are able to give a more realistic picture of the official and non-official statistical indicators that are circulated among the concerned policy makers, researchers, specialists and official and international institutions.

The paper explained the high rates of child labor in Jordan for several reasons, including internal factors related to the structure and nature of social and economic realities in Jordan, and external reasons associated with the presence of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees during the past few years.Social inequalities and poor social justice indicators, which resulted mainly from the implementation of economic policies that do not take into account the social consequences and effects of these policies, which have focused over the last decades on the liberalization of the national economy and the implementation of various fiscal policies. Which on the ground led to a decline in the living standards of large sectors of the Jordanian families, whose indicators have clearly emerged in the increase of the poor.Social inequalities and poor social justice indicators, which resulted mainly from the implementation of economic policies that do not take into account the social consequences and effects of these policies, which have focused over the last decades on the liberalization of the national economy and the implementation of various fiscal policies.Which led in reality to a decline in the living standards of large sectors of the Jordanian families, whose indicators have clearly emerged in the increase of the poor. The paper also indicated that the official indicators related to the incidence of poverty in Jordan increased from 13.3% in 2008 to 14.4% in 2010, and approaching 20% ​​in 2014,Not to mention the proportion of "poor passers-by" who lived in poverty at least three months a year, which the figures of the World Bank, the modern rate of about 18.6% of the community. The paper showed that there are no recent indicators and we are now in the middle of 2017 showing the levels of poverty in Jordan.

The paper pointed out that the Syrian asylum has led to an increase in child labor in Jordan. As mentioned above, the employment of Syrian children reached 11.1 thousand, accounting for 14.6% of the total child labor. Because of the weakness of basic services provided by international organizations related to the relief of Syrian refugees,So that the assistance provided by these organizations does not suffice with acceptable levels of decent living conditions, which encourages them to encourage their children to join the labor market.

The paper also pointed out that working children are exposed to many risks during their work, most notably the damage from heavy machinery, loud sounds, poor lighting, exposure to chemicals, and many work injuries due to the inadequacy of their physical abilities and the nature of their work.According to the study, the average wage for working children is 171 dinars per month, for Jordanians 174 dinars, for Syrians for 159 dinars per month, while for females it is higher than for males, 190 dinars compared to 170 dinars for males.It amounted to 190 dinars compared to 170 dinars in males. About one-third of working children work more than 48 hours per week, while nearly 55% work less than 36 hours per week. While 90% of female children work less than 36 hours per week.

The children in the labor market were also subjected to ill-treatment, psychological and physical abuse during their work, and in many cases to sexual abuse. Working children suffer from psychological, social and physical problems and disorders.Also, workers in difficult professions are exposed to many work injuries that can cause them some disabilities. The actions in which psychological and physical exploitative behaviors are often left to cultivate feelings of inferiority and injustice,Which leads many children to deviate and rebel against the norms and values ​​of society. This is in addition to the high rates of unskilled labor in the labor market because they are not subject to systematic training, which makes their productivity low. "

Translated by Diana Hilal