Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers
Jordan’s garment sector is booming, driven by a free trade agreement with the United States and cheap migrant labour from South and Southeast Asia. Historically the situation of these vulnerable workers has been dire and although there have been some real improvements in recent years, systemic problems around migrant workers’ legal status and recruitment means serious abusescontinue to occur. The potential for progress to be undone is heightened by the influx of an estimated 1.3 million Syrian refugees.
In February 2018 we surveyed 21 garment brands, predominantly from the United States, who source from Jordan. We asked these companies to explain how they are combatting abuse of migrant workers, and how they will seek to integrate and protect Syrian refugees in their supply chains. You can view the questions we asked brands here.
Below is a collection of the latest resources on this important issue.
(Photo credit: Alisa Reznick/MEE)
Related stories and components
Better Work Jordan releases its 2018 annual report on Jordanian garment factories
Author: Better Work Jordan
This, the ninth Annual Report presents findings and observations from 74 factory assessments completed in 2017. In addition, the report presents the programme’s engagement with national and international stakeholders in the context of relevant policy...
- Related in-depth areas: Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers
Blockchain technology helps Syrian refugees regain lost legal identities
Author: Russ Juskalian, MIT Technology Review
"Inside the Jordan refugee camp that runs on blockchain", 12 April 2018...
- Related in-depth areas: Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers Technology and Human Rights
NGO: Drop in Jordan labour protests attributed to employer and government pressures
Author: Ana V. Ibáñez Prieto, The Jordan Times
"20% drop in labour protests not indicator of better work conditions in Kingdom — report, 1 April 2018...
- Related in-depth areas: Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers
Jordan: Job centre opens for Syrian refugees in Azraq camp
Author: Ana V. Ibáñez Prieto, The Jordan Times
"First job centre opens at Azraq refugee camp", 19 February 2018...
- Related in-depth areas: Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers
$7.3 billion allocated to the Jordan Response Platform for Syrian refugees
Author: Middle East Monitor
"Donors endorse Jordan’s $7.3bn Syria refugee response plan", 2 February 2018...
- Related in-depth areas: Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers
As Jordan's garment sector grows, activists push for better migrant workers' rights
Author: Alisa Reznick, Middle East Eye (UK)
...Stretching across more than a square kilometre of arid desert in northern Jordan, Al Hassan is the largest of 18 special industrial zones churning out readymade garments and textiles for export. It is also home to the thousands of migrant workers...
- Related stories: Access to work in Jordan & Lebanon for Syrian refugees, migrant workers & host populations
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Labour Ministry urged to implement ‘clear standards’ for expulsion of migrant workers
Author: Ana V. Ibáñez Prieto, The Jordan Times
A legal aid organisation based in Amman has urged the Ministry of Labour to implement “clear standards and mechanisms” for the expulsion of migrant workers after the arrest of 10,408 foreign labourers and the deportation of 6,558 of them over the past...
- Related stories: Access to work in Jordan & Lebanon for Syrian refugees, migrant workers & host populations
- Related in-depth areas: Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers
Can Jordan get a million Syrians into work?
Author: Daniel Howden, Hannah Patchett and Charlotte Alfred, The Guardian (UK)
...The Jerash Garments & Fashions Manufacturing Company, a factory with 2,800 employees, is run by Oryana Awaisheh, a Jordanian who...is among the pioneers trying to take up the opportunity of the Jordan compact...Awaisheh set out to hire refugees...
- Related stories: Access to work in Jordan & Lebanon for Syrian refugees, migrant workers & host populations
- Related in-depth areas: Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers
Jordan: IKEA collaboration with Syrian refugee women offers steady, year-round employment
Author: Anne Quito, Quartz
"Syrian refugee women are finding shelter—and a salary—in IKEA’s supply chain", 13 October 2017...
- Related stories: Access to work in Jordan & Lebanon for Syrian refugees, migrant workers & host populations
- Related in-depth areas: Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers
- Related companies: IKEA
Jordan: Better Work 2017 report finds forced labour, abuses of freedom of association & health & safety commonplace in garment factories
Author: Better Work Jordan
"Annual Report 2017: Better Work Jordan", 16 Feb 2017...
- Related stories: Access to work in Jordan & Lebanon for Syrian refugees, migrant workers & host populations
- Related in-depth areas: Jordan garment sector: exploitation of migrant workers