There are no accurate statistics on foreign workers.. Labor threatens to hunt down illegal immigrant

[size=52]There are no accurate statistics on foreign workers.. Labor threatens to hunt down illegal immigrants[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Muhammad Sabah[/size]
[size=45]With the increase in unemployment, poverty and inflation to high levels in the past few periods, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs recorded indications of the process of entering foreign workers into Iraqi lands legally and illegally. .[/size]
[size=45]There are conflicting official figures regarding the number of foreign workers in Iraq. The Iraqi Ministry of Labor said in January of last year that their number was only “4,000 workers,” most of whom work in housekeeping, according to the Ministry’s Director of Labor and Vocational Training. Meanwhile, former Minister of Labor Basem Abdel-Zaman said in July of 2019 that the number of foreign workers had reached 750,000. But according to the latest figures from an official body, the Parliament’s Labor and Social Affairs Committee said that “there are about 1.5 million foreign workers in Iraq.” Najm Al-Aqabi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, said in a statement to (Al-Mada) that "after 2003, foreign workers entered Iraq in large and enormous numbers, some of them entered legally, and others illegal," indicating that his ministry is not responsible for the entry of foreign workers The large group to Iraqi territory, and is not concerned with regulating the mechanism of granting them entry visas (Visa).[/size]
[size=45]According to the Iraqi Labor Law No. (37) of 2015, a foreign worker is every natural person who does not hold Iraqi citizenship, who works or wants to work in Iraq as a worker, and departments and employers are prohibited from employing any foreign worker in any capacity unless he has a work permit issued by the Ministry in return for a fee determined by instructions issued by the Minister.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Uqabi notes that “the role of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is to grant a work permit only,” adding that their supervisory teams have recently started organizing inspection tours to search for foreign workers who have entered illegally, as well as to arrive at accurate statistics on the numbers of such workers.[/size]
[size=45]A spokesman for the Ministry of Labor points out that "our goal in implementing the provisions and paragraphs of the labor law in force is to employ 50% of the national workforce in order to create the principle of balance with foreign workers that invaded investment projects, specifically in the oil and energy sectors."[/size]
[size=45]He continues that "the Iraqi Labor Law requires the entry of the foreign worker to possess the profession and long experience in his field of work, provided that the Iraqi worker does not have experience and skill," stressing that "inspection tours are still ongoing for companies operating in the oil sector to ensure the foreign labor and the process of their entry and the application of the Labor Law." Iraqi".[/size]
[size=45]The government spokesman indicates that "the number of foreign workers working in investment companies ranges between 300,000 and 400,000 foreign workers throughout Iraq," noting that the nationalities of foreign workers currently in Iraq are from China and Southeast Asian countries.[/size]
[size=45]The spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Khaled Al-Muhanna, had previously announced the government's intention to deport large numbers of migrant workers illegally, noting that the labor law in Iraq is not applied properly.[/size]
[size=45]He cautions that “employment in restaurants and markets, where workers are often present from the state of Bangladesh, also do not have accurate statistics on their numbers,” noting that there are large campaigns carried out by the Ministry of Interior to deport those who entered Iraqi territory illegally.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Muhanna asserts that “the Residence Department of the Ministry of Interior is responsible for the process of entering these workers into Iraq, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is not aware of the process of their entry,” noting that “the unemployment index has risen in the current period to about 35%, after it was previously 22%.”[/size]
[size=45]For his part, Abdul-Zahra Al-Hindawi, spokesman for the Ministry of Planning, confirms to (Al-Mada) that “the poverty rate in Iraq amounted to about 30%, and inflation for the month of May rose to less than half one percent, but the cumulative inflation from November 2020 to May This year, it is less than 6%.[/size]
[size=45]For her part, Alia Hussein Mahoud, a member of the Executive Office of the General Federation of Trade Unions in Iraq, confirms to (Al-Mada) that "the percentage of foreign workers entering Iraq legally and illegally ranges from 800 to one million workers," indicating that the entry of these numbers of foreign workers will reduce Iraqi youth job opportunities.[/size]
[size=45]In 2020, Iraq witnessed a stifling economic crisis as a result of the drop in oil prices, due to which the government was reluctant to secure the salaries of employees on time and eventually resorted to reducing the value of the Iraqi dinar (from 120 thousand dinars to 145 thousand dinars, per hundred dollars), which practically reduced the purchasing power of employees And with it to wide segments linked to them.[/size]
[size=45]She adds that "illegal entry has economic and even health consequences because they are not subject to examinations in order to ensure their safety from all diseases," explaining that illegal entry is an attempt to evade taxes and fees imposed by the Iraqi government on these workers and on employers and employers such as Social Security located in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]