Illegal OFWs Urged to Avail of Amnesty in Jordan
MANILA – Filipino workers who have lost their work visas, residency permits and those whose status are irregular are advised to avail of the 60-day amnesty and correct their status in Jordan.
“I urge all OFWs whose stay in Jordan is irregular to heed the Jordan government’s offer of amnesty and legalize their stay. This is for your own good,” Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.
Baldoz issued the reminder after the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Amman reported the amnesty to her.
According to Labor Attache Florenda Herrera, the amnesty is good for 60 days and covers all foreign workers in the Kingdom.
It was decided on by the Jordan Ministry of Labor which had started a campaign to rectify the status of foreign workers, highlighting the need to implement a government decision that a foreign worker has to show a valid work permit as a condition to obtain public and private services, such as personal status services, bank services, education, Social Security coverage, housing, water, electricity, communications, and other services.
“I also urge our irregular OFWs in Jordan to take advantage of this opportunity by visiting the Labor Directorates of the Ministry of Labor in their places of stay where they can fix their documents and correct their status,” she said.
Herrera said there will be no retroactive fees for foreign workers who rectify their status in the first month of the amnesty and pay their work permits amounting to a new rate.
Accordingly, those who will avail of the amnesty and rectify their status in the second month will have to pay the previous year’s permit fees and the new permit fees.
Herrera added that the campaign for the amnesty covers all nationalities of migrant workers who had not left the country, but have received payments for their Social Security, i.e., their reimbursements of their contribution as a result of termination of employment.
It also covers first-time workers regardless of how they entered Jordan Also covered are migrant workers who entered Jordan with expired recruitment contracts and did not complete the process of obtaining valid work permits; migrant workers who will transfer from one industry sector to another, such as a household service worker transferring to a semi-skilled occupation; and workers who have been sentenced with deportation, but has not been carried out at the start of the amnesty.
“As to the trasferees, the exception are workers who transfer to the agriculture sector and those who transfer from the so-called Qualifying Industrial Zone to any other industry sector,” the Labor Attache said.
She also reported to Baldoz that based on the provisions of the amnesty, Jordan will stop receiving requests for recruitment of all nationalities, except from workers for Qualifying Industrial Zones and domestic workers. Jordan, however, will continue to process the adoption of the licensed professions, taking into consideration the agreed ratio of Jordanian workers against foreign workers.
Based on the Report to Congress on the Implementation of R.A. 10022, the estimated number of Filipinos in Jordan as of the first quarter of 2014 is 29,515, of whom 16,519 are regular, while 12,996 are irregular.
Filipinos in Jordan are mostly domestic workers (17,429); professionals (3,505); semi-skilled (3,891); and other workers (3,120). Filipino professional workers in Jordan are mostly nurses, engineers, and IT consultants, while the highly-skilled are mostly machine operators, heavy equipment mechanics, and welders. The semi-skilled are mostly hotel workers and wellness and hospitality workers.