By Haitham Sabbah
Garment Factory In Jordan. Photo: Yahya Qawasmi, Al Tajamouat Industrial City
As mentioned here, the US Department of Labor released their long-awaited report (PDF) on goods produced by “Child Labor” and “Forced Labor“.
The list is a huge boon for consumers who want to choose slave-free products. At least one can decisively take action to prevent slavery in the production of consumer goods by holding companies and countries accountable for the slavery they use in making the goods we buy.
On the other hand, I was surprised to see Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon among the list of countries who use Child Labor and Forced Labor in making some goods that we buy.
The list of good per country is as follows:
Egypt: Cotton and Stones (limestone) — both Child Labor
Jordan: Garments — Forced Labor
Lebanon: Tobacco — Child Labor
Under international labor standards, Child Labor and Forced Labor are defined as:
“Child Labor” under international standards means all work performed by a person below the age of 15. It also includes all work performed by a person below the age of 18 in the following practices:
1. all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale or trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom, or forced or compulsory labor, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
2. the use, procuring, or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic purposes;
3. the use, procuring, or offering of a child for illicit activities in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs; and
4. work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children.
The work referred to in subparagraph (4) is determined by the laws, regulations, or competent authority of the country involved.
“Forced Labor” under international standards means all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty for its non-performance and for which the worker does not offer himself voluntarily, and includes indentured labor. “Forced Labor” includes work provided or obtained by force, fraud, or coercion, including:
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1. by threats of serious harm to, or physical restraint against any person;
2. by means of any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person to believe that, if the person did not perform such labor or services, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or
3. by means of the abuse or threatened abuse of law or the legal process.
This even made me more worried. I can understand the “Child Labor” in some areas due to extreme poverty, although this can’t serve as an excuse for child labor, but “Forced Labor” and having that in JORDAN, it sounds like a stereotypical Hollywood movie about Arabs.
While I tend to doubt most (if not all) reports by official US agencies because of their hidden agendas, which are usually written carefully to meet certain objectives, which at the very least can be described as “blackmailing” governments and countries, however, I also believe that “there is no smoke without fire”.
Now some facts. Garment factories in Jordan are many and well known to have a good number of laborers working in them. Most products and goods are made for export to the US and European markets. However, what most non-Jordanians don’t know is that this industry has grown rapidly after the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel. I don’t know the exact number of these factories around Jordan, but I know for sure that Israeli businessmen own and run most of them. The reason why Israelis opened these factories in Jordan is the “Cheap Labor“, which any businessman will be hunting for around the world. But to turn this “cheap labor” to “forced labor” is a dangerous factor if it is true.
Now this sounds conflicting. Is it the Israeli-owned garment factories in Jordan which flagged Jordan to be listed in this report, or the few other Jordanian-owned factories, or both? And if it is the Israeli factories, should we believe that the report is so unbiased to list Jordan while they know that the factories are run with Israeli money? Or is it a typographical mistake by the agent who wrote the report and missed this part intentionally or due to ignorance? I personally tend to believe the last one.
In Jordan, we got used to accepting the term “Cheap Labor”, but to turn that to something worse than slavery and making it “Forced Labor”? This is the last thing one can imagine to hear. But look for the cause…
I hope I’m wrong, but I also hope this opens door for investigations to get to the bottom of it and I’m sure Jordan will not accept to be included in this shameful list due to a crime done on its soil by inhuman businessmen such as the Israeli Zionist Jews. I know this will not be easy, but I’m also sure Jordan and Jordanians will not accept that their people (and other nationalities) work in such conditions, which is worse than slavery.
Interested investigators can start with the list of references at the end of the report (page 118-119) which can be downloaded from here (PDF).
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Here is an Al-Jazeera report from July 2009 on the rise of poverty/child labor in Jordan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gruWBVlXqpg
Here’s some more information.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20081227-180195/Jordan-to-tackle-child-labor-problem
here’s the website
http://www.mosd.gov.jo/
I can bring it up in English but I don’t think I can search it. All reading here who read and write Arabic can search it.
Here’s the USAID program it is referring to. From what I read, the US is supporting a program to pull “4000 children” out of the worst child labor areas, what about the other apporoximate 28,000+ (hmmmmm, ok this is interesting)
http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/jordan.htm
Still looking for garment factory info.
OK, here.
http://www.nlcnet.org/searchresults.php?txtsearch=Jordanian+garment+factories&imageField.x=11&imageField.y=7
Didn’t read all the articles to see if any of them mention children, but there they are, Israeli owned garment factory reports.
There is a report there from last month.
http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=666
The Jordanian ministry of labor it seems is trying to cover up for the abuses taking place there. No children in those reports though.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13567
That article has the names of several of the garment factories, noted in the article that many of them are Israeli owned.
So, let me get this straight. We have a RECESSION here, so people who never dreamed of it have resorted to shopping at WalMart. There they get to buy these garments manufactured in HORRENDOUS Israeli owned garment shops in Jordan.
This makes me SICK at my stomach!
Just one more reason NOT to shop at WalMart! (The “all-American success story”)
Also, unrelated to Jordan but certainly related to child labor world wide. Before you bite into that next chocolate bar, google “Ivory Coast chocolate, child labor” The Ivory Coast produces 43% of the world’s cacao, relying HEAVILY on child labor.
Interested in buying tanzanite gems? Child labor rampant in the mines of Tanzania.
Oh there is so much more………………
We are everyone of us human beings who in our own micro worlds affect others by our every day choices in the products we purchase. It is estimated 128 MILLION children are working worldwide to produce the products we who live in comfort purchase. While we buy these products, so many of which we could certainly do without, CHILDREN are behind much of the production.
Maybe after we tuck our own children in to bed at night we might think about our choices. Blessed are the children.
Haitham, from your quote above, Jordan isn’t being written up in this report for child labor, is that correct?
I was able to find more information:
Jordan to tackle child labor problem (12/08)
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20081227-180195/Jordan-to-tackle-child-labor-problem
here’s the website referred to (Jordanian Ministry of Social Development)
http://www.mosd.gov.jo/
I can bring it up in English but I don’t think I can search it. Anyone reading here who reads Arabic can search the site for the report referred to.
Here’s the USAID program it is referring to.
http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/jordan.htm
From what I read, the US is supporting a program to pull “4000 children” out of the worst child labor areas, what about the other apporoximate 28,000? The US is giving aid to tackle this problem in Jordan (child labor) yet from what I read above, did not contain in this Dept. of Labor an admonition of child labor in Jordan.
Still looking for garment factory info.
OK, here is an article:
http://www.nlcnet.org/searchresults.php?txtsearch=Jordanian+garment+factories&imageField.x=11&imageField.y=7
There is a report there from last month.
http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=666
The Jordanian ministry of labor it seems is trying to cover up for the abuses taking place there.
“The Jordanian Ministry of Labor has not said why six Bangladeshi guest workers at Musa were arbitrarily imprisoned, beaten and then forcibly deported the very day after officials gave their word that the workers would not be deported. Another six workers remain in prison and are also threatened with forcible deportation.”
This article has the names of several of the garment factories, noted in the article that many of them are Israeli owned.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13567
“In recent years, Jordan has become a magnet for apparel manufacturers, helped by the privileged trade position that the United States has given it, first because of its 1994 peace accord with Israel and then because of a free trade agreement signed with Washington in 2001.”
So, let me get this straight. We have a RECESSION here, so people who never dreamed of it have resorted to shopping at WalMart. There they get to buy these garments manufactured in HORRENDOUS Israeli owned garment shops in Jordan.
This makes me SICK at my stomach!
Just one more reason NOT to shop at WalMart! (The “all-American success story”)
Unrelated to the reports from Jordan, before you indulge in your next chocolate experience, google “Ivory Coast chocolate child labor” The Ivory Coast produces 43% of the worlds cacao, much of it harvested with child labor.
Subsaharan Africa has the highest rate of child labor in the world. Google “tanzanite child labor” for a sickening report-actually there is a very good youtube on the subject
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geQrt1LDvu8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVb2WlKzfL0&feature=related
Who are the leading tanzanite trading countries? Germany, Israel, India and the US.
As I understand it, it was not the peace agreement between Jordan and Israel, but the Qualified Industrial Zone (QIZ) program started under the Clinton Administration that prompted ISraeli and oteh investment in Jordan. Under this arrangement, garments “produced” in Jordan can enter the US market duty and quota free if the have 8% of Israeli inputs. So, things like zippers, buttons, packaging, etc. can be Israeli and the rest “produced” in Jordan. However, considering that the fabric, machinery, and majority of the labor are imported to Jordan, the actual value added economic benefit to Jordan is nil and the idea of peace through economic interaction is a charade. The main beneficiaries are the Chinese who use the QIZs to get around their quotas.
http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNACU082.pdf
OK, that’s a report on the garment industry in the West Bank, another “recipient” of US aid. Top of page 4. See the date of that? In 1998 they were saying that the Israeli owned garment industry in Palestine may be shifted to Egypt and Jordan! Cheaper labor rates of course. Of course they also say lack of security is an issue (2002) but how does that account for the 1998 report forseeing a movement to Jordan which just happened to come immediately following the Irbid agreement(below)? What a coincidence. Oh boy, in Jordan many of the workers are foreign so they get REALLY low wages and according to reports, sometimes no wages at all! Then the Israelis get to work them to death there with the Jordanian govt. denying any wrong doing towards these workers. You couldn’t import foreign workers to Palestine to work the garment businesses there.
Oh here is the real link, above you quoted Egypt is cited for the cotton industry.
Here you go! This is how it works: (can’t access the entire article, but this paragraph alone gives the connection)
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-64768807.html
“In the Jordanian desert, hundreds of Jordanians toil to manufacture undergarments bearing brand names such as Victoria’s Secrets, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. The ‘Century Wear’ factory is the fruit of a multinational effort involving cotton from Egypt that is cut in Israel, assembled in the Kingdom of Jordan and shipped to the US. Under the rules of creation of the Irbid zone, where the plant is located, only Jordanian products manufactured in the Irbid industrial estate are allowed duty free access to the US markets. Low wages and lower production costs have captured the……..”
Irbid Zone:
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Irbid+Qualifying+Industrial+Zone+Agreement.htm
When was this agreement?
Done in Doha, Qatar on the 16th day of the month of November, 1997, in three original copies in the English language.
Note: recall above there was a 1998 report forseeing the movement to Jordan due to LOWER WAGES.
WHO is profiting from this? WHO gets reported for unfair labor practices? Not Israel!
And they call this “progress”.
Article: Egyptian cotton, child labor (as reported in the Dept. of Labor report)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jun/08/childprotection.humanrights?gusrc=rss&feed=environment
Remember, Israel is importing it’s cotton from Egypt to then “cut” and send to Jordan for the manufacturing of garments which are produced by Israeli owned companies then get duty free access to the US market.
Boy, what a deal. Perfect trifecta with the lead pony coming out scott free of any admonition by the US Department of Labor. I think the “arsonist” for your “fire” in this case is clear, not to mention is in cahoots with the two countries it has signed peace deals with. Then we Americans get to buy these cheap products. Oh how “lucky” we are.
Here is my QUESTION that maybe you or someone else could answer. If this Irbid agreement was supposed to benefit Jordan, why are the workers referred to in the report about the Musa garment plant imported from Bangladesh? Was there no stipulation in this agreement that the workers had to be Jordanian citizens? (I’m afraid to hear the answer to this)
This is all so sickening there just aren’t any words for it. I’m going to admit, when I first read your article here I was questioning that Israel (as well as the US in it’s “aid” and duty free arrangement as it turns out) was behind these reports on Egypt and Jordan-just totally unaware of the connection more than anything. Not any more. Thank you Haitham for writing this and putting this info out there.
Alloptionsonthetable,
I see what you are saying but the Irbid agreement would have never come about without the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel. The peace agreement was signed in 1994, a trade agreement was signed in 1996, then with expected gratuity vis and vis the US in the form of the US granting duty free designation to products originating from the QIZ-”icing on the cake”. Jordan recieved it’s “reward”, HAH! Israeli businessmen were able to expand their businesses into a neighboring country and avow themselves of cheap labor. (BANGLADESHI labor in the case of the Musa plant!) Some reward for Jordan.
Interesting synopsis on Wiki of the articles of the treaty, of course economic “goals” stated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Jordan_peace_treaty