Middle East Eye has published an update from an earlier article about NGOs asking for a government exemption to dismiss Jordanian staff in spite of a COVID-19 worker protection law.
MEE reported last week that 31 international NGOs and foreign ambassadors were pressuring Jordanian authorities for exemptions to the law in order to dismiss local staff, saying the measure had left some of the organizations “on the brink of failure”. Three organizations have already received exemptions. A paper published in 2020 by IFPRI estimated that job losses during Jordan’s aggressive lockdown were over 20 percent, while average household income fell by one-fifth. Unemployment now sits around 25 percent. In May 2021, youth unemployment reached a staggering 50 percent.