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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - The US Department of Labour (DOL) said Saturday that it recognised that forced labour in the garment and textile industry in Jordan has been significantly reduced.

In a letter to Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Jawad Anani, and Minister of Labour, Ali Ghezawi, the DOL said it had removed Jordanian garments from its List of Goods Produced by Child Labour or Forced Labour, also known as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorisation Act List.

It noted that Jordan had provided detailed information about the significant efforts it had made, especially Jordan's garment industry to combat forced labour, through routine labour inspection, the Golden List, the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Capital Unified Contract and the International Labour Orgnisation's (ILO) Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment.

The DOL letter also said Jordan had shown commitment to improving working conditions for workers in the garment sector by providing support to the ILO's Better Work Jordan programme and making membership in it mandatory for garment factories exporting to the US.

It also mentioned the Ministry of Labour's closure of a factory found to be perpetrating forced labour practices, and also noted the government's efforts to grant work permits to Syrian refugees to work in the garment sector.

The letter also noted the role of civil society groups to improve conditions in the garment sector, including Tamkeen, a local NGO that works on issues related to migrant workers and human trafficking and documents workers' rights violations.

Tamkeen also refers cases of forced labour and human trafficking to the inti-Human Trafficking Unit of the Public Security Department, it said.

In its letter, DOL said it continued to monitor the prevalence of forced labour indicators in the sector, including through a visit to Jordan in 2016, and found that important progress had been made to address forced labour in the sector.

It urged the Jordanian government to continue to use inspections to ensure all factories are meeting their legal obligations and respecting the labour rights of all workers, including migrants and Syrian refugees.