The Jordanian Labor Watch has warned that the phenomenon of child labor in Jordan continues to worsen due to the continued implementation of “unfair” economic policies that have led to an increase in poverty and unemployment rates.
The Jordanian Labor Watch explained that the high rates of poverty and unemployment to high levels during the past years have led to a significant increase in the number of children involved in the Jordanian labor market compared to the latest statistics issued by the International Labor Organization in cooperation with the Department of Statistics and the Ministry of Labor in 2016, which indicated that about 75 thousand children in Jordan are involved in child labor, including about 45 thousand working in hazardous occupations.
This came in a specialized position paper issued by the Jordanian Labor Watch of the Phenix Center for Economic and Informatics Studies on the occasion of International Children's Day, which falls on November 20 of each year.
The paper noted that successive governments have implemented “unfair” economic policies that have increased poverty and unemployment rates to very high levels, which has exacerbated the number of child laborers in Jordan.
The paper indicated that poverty rates in Jordan have increased from 15.7 percent to 24 percent over the past ten years, and according to World Bank figures, the poverty rate in Jordan has reached 35 percent, in addition to the high unemployment rates that have reached very high levels compared to historical unemployment rates in Jordan and their rates in most countries of the world, as they were before the Corona pandemic (19.2) percent, and reached during the second quarter of 2024 (21.4) percent.
The paper mentioned that most of the economic policies implemented during the past years focused on austerity policies and the persistent implementation of unfair fiscal and tax policies, as well as the expansion of indirect taxes that strained the purchasing power of many families, prompting them to take their children out of school and enter the labor market.
In the statement, the paper pointed out that the latest of these policies is the decision to increase doctors' wages, which will increase the economic burden on Jordanian families, especially those with limited incomes, in addition to the recent proposed amendments to the labor law, most of which will increase the dismissal of workers, which will lead to an increase in unemployment rates, which is one of the main causes of the phenomenon of child labor.
The paper emphasized that all efforts to reduce the phenomenon of child labor in Jordan have focused only on detecting cases of child labor in the labor market and penalizing employers who employ them, while these efforts did not target the real causes that lead to an increase in child labor, namely poverty and unemployment.
In addition, low and stagnant wage levels in the face of high inflation rates (prices of goods and services) have led to a decline in living standards for large segments of families, according to the paper.
In addition, the school environment in many schools, especially public schools, remains unattractive to large segments of students, which encourages them to withdraw from school and join the labor market.
The paper warned that child labor has many negative effects on children, such as physical, social, and educational effects, as many children work in unhealthy environmental conditions that negatively affect their health directly, and they may be exposed to many dangers during their work.
The paper recommended the need to address the real causes behind the phenomenon of child labor, namely poverty and unemployment, in addition to reconsidering tax policies that have expanded the imposition of indirect taxes and strained the purchasing power of citizens.
The paper concludes by emphasizing the need to develop the social protection system so that it becomes fair and provides a decent life for all, especially the poor, and to reconsider wage levels in order to raise them in line with the standard of living in Jordan, in addition to developing the educational process during the basic stage to reduce the number of children dropping out of school.