Foreign labor companies are spreading in Iraq despite the Ministry of Labor’s stated reservations

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[size=52]Foreign labor companies are spreading in Iraq despite the Ministry of Labor’s stated reservations[/size]

[size=45]Ali Al-Hamdani[/size]
[size=45]The number of foreign workers in Iraq is estimated at one million workers, of whom only 103 thousand workers are officially registered in the Ministry of Labor.[/size]
[size=45]Meanwhile, specialists confirm that the infiltration of foreign workers into the country is behind the sweeping away of opportunities for local citizens, to the point that more than 6 million Iraqi youth have become unemployed, according to the estimates of the concerned authorities. Many young people complain about the presence of foreign workers in the labor market and their competition for their jobs in the private sector, as is the case with Iraqi worker Shalal Jassim (32 years old) from Baghdad.[/size]
[size=45]A story from reality[/size]
[size=45]Jassim told Al Mada: “I was working in a car wash station with a number of Iraqi workers, but with the entry of foreign workers into the country and employing them in various marketing centers, we began to worry about their threat to our sources of livelihood, and our concern was justified.”[/size]
[size=45]He added, “The owner of the station where I was working hired foreign workers of Pakistani nationality, because they accepted lower wages compared to the Iraqi worker, in addition to their willingness to perform any other additional tasks, with the same wage.”[/size]
[size=45]He explains, “The Iraqi worker at the station was earning 20,000 dinars per day, and after employing foreign workers with us, wages decreased to 15,000 dinars, and the employer began to compare the work of the local worker with his foreign counterpart.”[/size]
[size=45]As a result of the low wages, Jassim says: “I filed a complaint with the owner of the station, but he said that the Pakistani worker pays this wage - 15 thousand dinars - by working during the day and guarding at night. I then decided to leave the job to the foreign worker and look for another job, in a shopping center, but the competition was repeated in light of The presence of the foreigner.”[/size]
[size=45]Importing foreign workers after 2003[/size]
[size=45]Expatriate workers have become a phenomenon accompanying the state of development that Iraqi society is going through, especially after the radical transformations that occurred as a result of the change in the political system after 2003, and the shift of the economy from comprehensive central planning to a free market economy, which facilitated the import of foreign workers.[/size]
[size=45]As a result of Iraq's openness to the outside world, and in line with the trends of globalization and the World Trade Organization calling for facilitating the free movement of labor across borders without obstacles, it opened a wide scope for increasing expatriate labor to Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]However, this unregulated openness and its accompanying repercussions on the security, economic and social aspects require the adoption of plans and policies to regulate this phenomenon and reduce its risks.[/size]
[size=45]A foreign worker meets 6 unemployed Iraqis[/size]
[size=45]In previous statements followed by (Al-Mada), the head of the General Federation of Trade Unions in Iraq, Star Denbos Barak, revealed that “there are foreign workers entering Iraq without the knowledge of the Ministry of Labor, and according to the statistics we have, the number of foreign workers in Iraq exceeds one million workers,” pointing out. “There are more than 6 million unemployed people.”[/size]
[size=45]A member of the Parliamentary Labor and Social Affairs Committee, Sattar Al-Attabi, agrees with what Sattar Denbos Barak said about “there are about a million foreign workers, of whom only ten percent have been officially registered,” pointing out that “there is no real data on the numbers of foreign workers in Iraq, and on how they enter.” And their stay in the country.”[/size]
[size=45]While the spokesman for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Najm Al-Uqabi, confirms that “the number of foreign workers who have a work permit and the approval of the Ministry of Labor is 103 thousand workers,” indicating that “there are foreign workers who entered the country through religious tourism and moved to the labor market, and no one can A body to count their numbers.”[/size]
[size=45]Thousands of violators[/size]
[size=45]For his part, the spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Brigadier General Miqdad Al-Moussawi, says, “The Directorate of Civil Status, Passports and Residency recorded the entry of approximately 12,658 Arabs and foreigners into Baghdad and the provinces from the beginning of 2023 until now.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mousawi explains to (Al-Mada), “As for violators of Residence Law No. 76 of 2017, approximately 7,862 violators were arrested, and they were deported to their countries and excluded after paying the fines stipulated in the law.”[/size]
[size=45]How can unemployment be reduced?[/size]
[size=45]For his part, economic researcher Ali Daadoush says, “The depth of thinking of Iraqi youth stems from obtaining a job in the public sector, because of its advantages, the most important of which is the continued flow of salaries in addition to the retirement salary.” The observer knows that the salaries of the private sector are more than the salaries of public sector employees, because of their relationship to the renewal of trade (buying and selling) on ​​a daily basis.”[/size]
[size=45]Daadoush points out during his talk to (Al-Mada) that “the increase in the number of foreign workers negatively affects the labor market, especially workers who do not have skill or experience, as they will compete with local workers who work in the unorganized private sector, and therefore work must be done to prevent entry visas.” For such workers.”[/size]
[size=45]Daadoush calls on young people in the labor market to “invest in government initiatives, as well as the Central Bank’s initiatives for employment and registration on their own sites, in a way that ensures the creation of a small project that reduces the unemployment rate in Iraq.”[/size]
[size=45]Unemployment rate 16.5%[/size]
[size=45]According to the latest survey carried out by the Central Bureau of Statistics in cooperation with the International Labor Organization, unemployment rates in Iraq have reached 16.5% among the economically active population aged 18 to 63 years.[/size]
[size=45]Official estimates indicate that the population of Iraq will exceed 43 million people by the end of 2023, after it exceeded 42 million people last year.[/size]
[size=45]It is noteworthy that the German company “Statista”, which specializes in international statistics, announced in a previous report the unemployment rate in Iraq from 2002 to the end of 2021, pointing out that it decreased by 3.71% last year 2022 to reach 15.55%.[/size]
[size=45]The company said in its report that the unemployment rate in Iraq decreased by 0.6 points and by 3.71 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year 2021, noting that 2021 witnessed the highest unemployment rate for Iraq during the past twenty years, which amounted to 16.23 percent.[/size]
[size=45]She added that the unemployment rate in 2003 reached 8.85%, and in 2004 the rate was 8.72%, then it continued to decline during the following years to record in 2012 the lowest unemployment rate in 20 years, at a rate of 7.96%, then it began to rise again to record in 2018 the rate. 13.02%, and in 2020 the rate is 15.11%.[/size]
[size=45]The unemployment rate refers to the proportion of the economically active population that is currently unemployed but looking for work. The unemployment rate does not include people who are not economically active, such as the long-term unemployed, children, or retirees.[/size]
[size=45]The increasing number of unemployed people in Iraq prompted, in 2019, widespread popular demonstrations, the nucleus of which were among them. The demonstrators demanded the provision of job opportunities, the provision of services, and the elimination of corruption.[/size]
[size=45]Returning to the Iraqi worker, Shalal Jassim from Baghdad, he says in the midst of this competition: “After leaving my job in a shopping center because of foreign workers, I recently found work in a company as a sales representative.”[/size]
[size=45]But the concern has not left him until now, as he says in a tone full of concern at the conclusion of his speech: “I do not know when my work will be terminated at the expense of the foreign worker.”[/size]
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