Egyptian laborers are indispensable due to their honed skills and good reputation in Jordan over the years and cannot be replaced with Syrian laborers, the Jordanian Labor Ministry said.

Recent media reports about replacing the Egyptian workforce in Jordan with a Syrian one are completely incorrect, ministry spokesman Mohammad al Khatib told MENA.

He denied that inspection campaigns are specifically targeting Egyptian laborers, adding that Egyptian workers have a long expertise in many vital sectors, mainly construction, trade, industry and services.

The inspection campaigns, carried out by the interior and labor ministries over the past four months, had detained 2,519 violating workers, including 2,476 Egyptians, he said.

He urged Egyptian violators to rectify their status in the country, get back to labor offices and issue new licenses in the allowed professions to overcome any legal or administrative measures against them, which include deportation.

Egyptians who got licenses to work in agricultural professions can change their profession but after their licenses expire but they have to do so before being detained in another security campaign, the spokesman said, noting that 200,000 Egyptian have working licenses in Jordan.

Source: MENA