The International Labor Organization (ILO) and the UN refugee Agency, UNHCR, have teamed up to help Syrian refugees in Jordan. Under the project, refugees at the Azaraq camp will be given permission to leave the camp for work opportunities and job training.
A project has been launched by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR to integrate asylum seekers in Jordan. The plan is to better equip them to face increasing poverty. The scheme will give Syrian refugees at the Azaraq refugee camp easier access to the country's labor market, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).
The target is to find jobs for nearly 200,000 of the 1.3 million Syrian refugees scattered across the kingdom, according to official estimates.
One-month work across the country
The project provides for refugees to leave the camp, located 170 kilometres east of Amman, for a total of one month. During this time they will be allowed to work around the kingdom, and have access to related services such as information on labor rights, training opportunities and recruitment services. The project launch included a job exhibition with at least 850 jobs on offer, aimed at bringing refugees into sectors such as the agriculture and service industries, ILO officials said.
Jordan hopes the new project will allow Jordanian industries to have easier access to the EU markets under the 2016 EU relaxed rules of origin agreement, that was approved by the European Union. This was a deal to help Jordan in hosting refugees by giving the kingdom trade concessions.
Jordan has issued 88,000 work permits to Syrians
As part of a 2016 "compact" deal that also increased international aid to the country, UNHCR said Jordan has thus far issued more than 88,000 work permits to Syrians. The majority of permits were issued in the agriculture and construction sectors, with women accounting for around 5 percent of the total number of employees. More than 80 percent of the 657,000 registered Syrian refugees in Jordan live below the poverty line on less than three US dollars a day, mirroring the situation facing more than 5.5 million Syrian refugees across the region.