By Britanny
Vanderhoof
Since the conflict in Syria began,
over four
million people have fled and are living as refugees in host countries. Humanitarian
aid has been inconsistent and cuts to assistance programs have had devastating
impacts on refugees. Refugees, although living safely in host countries, may
face poverty, little or no access to medical care, and few educational
opportunities. The situation is causing people to lose hope and forcing
families to make the impossible decision of remaining in their current
situation, risking return to Syria, or attempting to make the perilous journey
to Europe.
No one solution will address all
of the challenges faced by Syrian refugees. However, allowing Syrians to work
is one step that could help alleviate the stresses on families described above.
Allowing refugees to work would reduce their reliance on aid and increase their
ability to pay for services such as medical care. Despite the necessity and
importance of allowing refugees to work, Jordan has instituted policies that
prevent Syrian refugees from seeking legal employment. While Jordan is not the
only host country to impose this restriction (Lebanon and Turkey have also
instituted barriers to employment), this article will focus on the situation in
Jordan as an example of problems facing the region.
There are currently 630,776 registered
Syrian refugees living in Jordan. Most do not live in camps but instead live in
towns and cities. Camps provide shelter, food, and medical care to the
residents but heavily restrict freedom of movement. Thus, many refugees choose
to live in urban settings where they are expected to pay rent, grocery bills,
medical care, and education costs. NGOs provide some help in the form of cash
assistance, food vouchers, and goods but lack the resources to meet the demand. The
inability to become self-sufficient through work, coupled with the limits on
NGO assistance, has left many Syrians impoverished and desperate.
For many Syrians, the restriction
on their ability to seek legal employment has not stopped them from seeking it.
Syrians work without permission and as a result are at risk of being forcibly
returned to camps or deported back to Syria and the dangerous situation from
which they are seeking refuge. The restrictions on legal employment have also
meant that Syrians are vulnerable to working in poor conditions for low wages
with no recourse against their employers. Families have also made the choice to
send their children to work rather than to school because the children are less
likely to be caught, and if they are, the penalties are not as severe. Having
to work to support their families prevents children from attending school.
Refugees working in these
conditions do not benefit the host countries because wages may be driven down
for everyone and refugees are at risk of becoming victims of forced labor or
human trafficking.
Jordan’s domestic law provides very
few protections for refugees and the right to work is only recognized
for Jordanian citizens. Lacking protections under domestic law, the next place
to look is international human rights law.
The right to work is recognized in
a number of international conventions. Article Twenty-three of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights provides that “everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to
just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.”
Similarly, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural (ICESCR)
rights also recognizes the right to work. The right to work is specifically
protected for refugees in the 1951 Refugee Convention. This convention protects
the right to work in three articles. Article Seventeen defines the right to
wage-earning employment, Article
Eighteen provides the right to self-employment, and Article Nineteen
protects the right to liberal professions.
With all the recognition of the
importance on the right to work in international law, why is it that Syrian
refugees have little to no access to legal employment in the countries hosting
them?
Unfortunately, the Refugee
Convention in this context is of little use. Jordan is not a signatory to the
Convention despite having a long history of hosting refugees. Currently, a
memorandum of understanding is the basis for UNHCR’s work in the country. This
allows UNHCR to register refugees and provide assistance but the legal
protections and rights afforded in the Refugee Convention do not apply.
Jordan is a signatory to the
ICESCR, and there are processes in place for the Committee on Economic, Social,
and Cultural Rights to consider alleged violations of the Convention.
Unfortunately, Jordan has not accepted the individual complaints procedure
(which allows an individual to bring a complaint) nor has it accepted the
inquiries procedure (which allows the Committee to investigate a violation
based upon the receipt of information about a potential violation). States may
also bring a complaint of a violation against another state, but this has never
been done.
Relatedly, the high percentage of
child labor and the inappropriate and often dangerous types of work in which
children engage implicates another human rights treaty. Jordan is a party
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Article
Thirty-two requires signatories to protect children from economic
exploitation and any work that “is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with
the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical,
mental, spiritual, moral or social development.” A recent report released by
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children documents
high numbers of Syrian children working long hours and in dangerous conditions
or hazardous industries. Not only do many children work in dangerous
conditions, but many children are exploited in commercial sex, organized child
begging, and other forms of labor trafficking. The report
also notes that many jobs children work have resulted in injury- in some cases
very serious injuries. Because so many children need to work to help support
their families, they cannot attend school and are at risk of becoming a “lost generation.” Jordan
has not accepted the individual complaint procedure for alleged violations of
the CRC.
Despite the recognition of legal
protections, there is no real opportunity for Syrians to assert or seek redress
for a violation of their labor rights. Unfortunately, the inability to hold
states accountable for failure to fulfill their obligations under human rights
treaties is not limited to the situations outlined in this article. This is a
problem with the international human rights framework generally. Without a
system for recourse, Syrians must rely on the Jordanian government to help them
or for other countries to apply enough pressure to persuade the Jordanian
government to lift restrictions on the right to work. This would alleviate
burdens on families, and would hopefully reduce the reliance on child labor,
although the failure to protect children from economic exploitation should also
be specifically addressed. Until this happens, Syrians will continue to
struggle to survive in
Jordan and, if current trends continue, will continue to make the risky
decision to return to Syria or attempt to seek refuge in Europe.
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