Iraq's Government to Deport Foreign Workers

 

With the official unemployment rate at 15 percent and another 28 percent in part-time jobs, their aim is to create more job opportunities for Iraqis as their country rebuilds after years of war.

 

[Hossni Ahmed, Legal Consultant, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs]: 

"Unemployment rate is very high. Priority should be given to the national laborer. Therefore, we agreed to act on laws and the most important one is the residential law No.118 of 1968.”

 

The government says the decision will not have an effect on the local labor market because most of the foreign workers are unskilled workers.

 

Thousands of foreigners, mainly from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and some African nations, work as cleaners and laborers in restaurants, shops, hospitals and hotels.

 

[Fairouz Jubidali, Bangladeshi Worker]: 

"I should work here for the next two years and Iraq is good. I have a good job and I get good pay… and then I will go back to Bangladesh.”

 

But some say deporting foreign workers will not solve the unemployment issue.

 

[Ibrahim Jameel, Shop Owner]: 

"There is no need for such a decision because those people (foreign workers) are poor and few and they will not impact on the labor market. They are practical people and their salaries are simple…I, as an employer, consider the decision a loss to employers in the private sector."

 

[Salam Ahmed, Restaurant Owner]:

"I do not support the deportation decision because they work from early morning until 10:00 p.m. They do not complain and they do not say we are hungry and they have no more demands. The salary of a foreign worker is less than the salary of an Iraqi worker.”

 

Officials say the government is only issuing work permits to workers at foreign firms that hire at least 50 percent Iraqis for their work force.

 

Thousands of foreign workers came to Iraq after the 2003 invasion as employees for foreign companies contracted by the U.S. forces, mostly working inside U.S. military bases.

 

In 2007, private Iraqi employment agencies imported thousands more.