"Jordan Labor Watch denounces an increase in child labor" Jordan Labor Watch, 19 November 2020

On the 20th of November, on the occasion of the International Children's Day, the  Jordan Labor Watch issued a position paper stating that the number of children joining the labor market is increasing significantly, and most of them belong to poor families driven by the necessity to send their children to work in order to guarantee the household’s basic need.

The paper emphasized that the COVID-19 crisis increased the poverty rates in Jordan, which will continue to lead to higher numbers of children entering the labor market, especially in light of the implementation of the distance education policy, where students are not forced to attend their schools anymore. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the Darsak platform, which provides distance education services to students in public schools, reaches only 70% of students, while 30% of them, corresponding to an estimated 440,000 children, are still unable to attend online classes.