 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 25 Nov. - 1 Dec. 1999 Issue No. 457 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 25 Nov. - 1 Dec. 1999 Issue No. 457
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Unemployment tops Arab labour agenda
By Rasha SaadNew programmes for the employment of Arab youth, for the rehabilitation of Palestinian prisoners and for Iraqi citizens handicapped after the 1991 Gulf War, are three projects heading the agenda of the Arab Labour Organisation (ALO) that began a four-day series of meetings last Sunday. The programmes will be implemented by the organisation over the next three years, once the proposals have been approved at the Arab Labour Conference next March.
The chronic unemployment problem in the Arab World is a key concern of the ALO's, which is an affiliate of the Arab League. "No Arab country will be able to overcome the problem of unemployment alone," Ibrahim Queidar, head of the ALO, told Al-Ahram Weekly , stressing that a unified effort should be made by Arab countries under the organisation's umbrella, and that the organisation's new programme for youth was designed to deal with this problem.
The programme's main aim is "to offer a chance for young people to be employed in their homeland, and at the same time to establish Arab cooperation in the exchange of young workers". Implementation of the three-year project will start in April 2000 with a budget of approximately US$1.84 million. The programme will be funded primarily by Arab contributions, though any expansion to it will be covered by seeking outside funds from bodies such as the International Labour Organisation or the United Nations Development Programme.
According to an ALO study, the emerging market economies in the Arab world and continuing economic reforms are exacerbating unemployment. In addition, many Arab and European countries have a policy of favouring their own nationals when taking on new workers, and this has added to unemployment in the region, since the free flow of labour in the past acted to counteract unemployment in countries such as Egypt.
Average unemployment in the region reached 14 per cent this year, the study said, leaving some 12.5 million unemployed -- most of whom are young people newly entering the labour market. The study also reported that women's participation in the economy was still less than it was in other regions of the world.
Queidar, along with Arab League Secretary General Esmat Abdel Meguid, earlier this month also reviewed draft proposals aimed at rehabilitating Palestinian prisoners recently freed from Israeli jails and at Iraqi citizens handicapped as a result of the Gulf War and its aftermath.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestinian Labour Federation are currently working with the ALO on providing a future for Palestinian veterans of long-term Israeli detention. Possibilities include their rehabilitation in specially constructed centres, institutions or universities both inside and outside the Palestinian territories.
Queidar also explained that the Gulf War and continued British and American bombing of Iraqi territory have resulted in large numbers of handicapped people who need special care and rehabilitation. Plans include bringing experts in relevant areas to regional rehabilitation centres, he said, and with technical plans well advanced and finance promised, he indicated that concrete steps should be taken next year.
However it seems likely that ALO plans alone will not solve Iraq's employment problems. According to Fadel Ghareeb, head of the Iraqi Labour Federation, these go far beyond the handicapped, since "every day Iraqis are crippled, and not [just] physically, as a result of the sanctions," he said.
"We need the Arabs to help us end this crippling of the whole country. We do not see any alternative apart from [ending] the sanctions on Iraq," he added.
According to Ghareeb, Iraq's unemployment problems are a result of UN Security Council sanctions. About 80 per cent of the country's factories are inoperable, he said, as a result of the departure of 5.5 million Egyptian labourers. Iraqis themselves cannot find work, and the low wages, absence of social insurance, currency inflation, and scarcity of food and medicine in the country all compound the problem.
Iraq used to occupy third place in the ALO's human development index, but now the country comes in at 15th, with the country's development having been set back some 20 years by the crisis. The ALO report shows that Iraq's human-resource development in 1994 had reverted back to 1976 levels.
Other issues addressed during the four-day meeting included safeguarding the rights of Arab workers traveling to other Arab countries through brokers, "who deal with workers as goods and not as human beings". The ALO is seeking to end exploitation of migrant Arab labour, which has worsened in recent years.
This concern comes just weeks after Egyptian workers in Kuwait rioted over a private dispute that quickly escalated into a major conflict requiring police intervention. Observers blamed tensions arising from the poor conditions many Egyptians face in the country. Even after paying a large fee to brokers, they arrive in the country only to find themselves without the promised jobs and without, even, the requisite work and residence permits.
