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I'm just watching this BBC World programme about the impact of the global crisis on migrant workers (Bangladeshi) who are working in Singapore and went into huge debt to do so but are now suffering as they are being laid off.
I'm wondering how much impact the global crisis is having on Egyptian migrant workers in the Gulf who also go deeply into debt to get jobs over there? Anyone know how its impacting Egyptians?
Posts: 5593 | From: Egypt | Registered: Dec 2005
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This morning I read an atricle oabout the theoritical bankrupt of Dubai, because Abu Dabi refused financial help. All big building-transactions are covered by insurances, and there is where it is going wrong. The insurance-companies worldwide are refusing to cover millions of companies. With the result the transactions can go on, but on their own risk, or are delayed by searching for another solution, ór are cancelled. Billions of transactions are at least delayed, right now. Not only by building and construction, but also by simple trading. The factories cannot sell because their sales are not insured and they cannot produce because their stock isn't sold. It's one big chaos. There are companies who are doing business together for years and years, and right now, not able to do what they always did because of that credit-insurance. BIG, BIG names are on that lists. And the immigrant-workers? A lot are fired. yesterday there was a discussion about the old fashioned method to give economics an impuls by giving gouvernment order for roads, buildings etc. But when the workers there are immigrants, they would help the immigrants instead as their own people!
-------------------- “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” Posts: 7202 | From: EU | Registered: Nov 2006
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Egyptians in the Gulf region will not get an exception, Shanta, many of them will be also hard impacted by the global economic crisis if it hasn't happened already.
I posted an article not long ago here on ES about what's going on currently in Dubai. Check it out.
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Looks like local Egyptian workers don't have more luck!
Hotels Lay off Labor Step by Step; Investor Tells Nazif He will Dismiss 1000 Workers in a Week
By Youssef al-Awmi 19/ 2/ 2009
Owners of hotels, companies and tourist resorts started to follow a new policy in dismissing workers.
They follow the "dropper" policy, namely they fire 3 or 4 workers on a daily basis, so they can dismiss 100 workers per month at least. They said that they are obliged to do this and not collective layoffs to avoid strikes and complaints.
Mahmoud Gaballah, Board Member of the Chamber of Tourist Facilities, said he followed this policy and managed to fire more than 200 workers out of 4,000.
He added that he had to pay salaries up to LE 750,000 while the total gains did not reach 50% of that figure due to weak demand resulting from the global economic crisis. He said that he would reduce the number of workers by 50% if the current recession continued.
During Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif's meeting with the leaders of the tourism sector and with Minister of Tourism Zuheir Garana last week, the board chairman of Travco Group Hamid al-Shiti told Nazif that he would have to dismiss 1000 workers out of 11,000 if the government did not support him, especially as his hotel occupancy fell by over 40%.
In Sharm el-Sheikh, Accor fired more than 60 workers of Sofitel and Novotel within two weeks.
For his part, Chairman of the Chamber of Hotels in South Sinai Ahmed Balba cast doubts on the current occupancy rates, adding that the Ministry of Tourism plays the role of the doctor who reassures his patients although their conditions are critical.
He added that there have been great reductions in the prices, not only in Egypt, but also all over the world.
The losses in the tourism sector are heavy and the decline in the price of the euro "added insult to injury" because the hotel facilities that deal with the European market declined by 20%, in addition to the drop in prices resulting from the world economic crisis.
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I personally have 4 very well educated friends who were laid off well paid jobs up there on top of the hierarchies in Dubai. These guys had cars and apartments back there and cars and apartments in cairo all with installments. Go figure!
I read that till Jan half a million employees were sent home with no notice, immediate visa cancellation.
Since I lived there for so long, I can easily say that everyone lives on loans! So it's a mess.
-------------------- Same crap...Different toilet Posts: 1813 | From: Cairo | Registered: Aug 2002
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50% were fired in Sharm, people told me last month. Yes, everybody who is in problems, has been living on loans. People where you always have been wondering how they were able to live in such a big house, to buy so many expensive cars, etc. now have to face the facts: they have been living far above their real status. Worldwide. I've seen people who's skincolour has turned into grey last months, who's eyes are inexpressive, waiting on final execution. I'm afraid that we have to see many unbelievable events, next coming times. Like cornered animals...
-------------------- “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” Posts: 7202 | From: EU | Registered: Nov 2006
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Egyptian government to launch more projects to absorb returning expatriates
Since the global recession started, Arab investments have decreased by 55 per cent. Having lost about $2.5 trillion in their investments in European countries, around 62 per cent of development projects in Arab countries, which employed many Egyptian workers, have been cancelled.
In order to avoid more losses, many companies in Arab countries have had to lay off their workers, including Egyptians. It has been reported that around 30,000 Egyptians working in the Arab Gulf countries, are expected to return home and join the ranks of the unemployed. The problem is that the Egyptian economy hasn't got the capacity to absorb all these returning workers.In an attempt to ease the effects of the global economic crisis, the Government has reduced the customs on 260 commodities to lower the production costs for companies and pumped LE1 billion (around $200 million) into them from the Social Development Fund (SDF), a minister said. “There is an aid and contingency fund dedicated for every Egyptian establishment that is struggling to pay its workers' wages. This fund gives the workers their wages when they are not paid. We have paid out LE15 million for a large number of workers in 112 establishments,” Aisha Abdel-Hadi, the Minister of Manpower and Immigration, told the Arabic-language Akher Saa magazine. She disclosed that her Ministry has signed many agreements with Arab countries to protect the rights of Egyptian workers there and guarantee their jobs. “The labour attachés in different Arab countries also keep an eye on the Egyptian workers there and help them if they have any problems,” the Minister added.Mohamed Ibrahim el-Sorogi, the Secretary of the General Federation for Timber and Construction Industry Workers, says that contracting companies need the well-trained Egyptian technicians who departed their country in quest for higher salaries in the Gulf countries. The role of the Federation is to try and find jobs in construction for these highly Egyptian technicians if they have to return home from abroad, he said.Some economic experts think that the Egyptian Government should provide projects to absorb the large number of workers who are expected to return anytime soon from the Arab countries.The former chairman of the Cairo-based Sadat Academy for Management Sciences and a noted economic expert, Hamdi Abdel-Azim, says that sacking Egyptians working in Gulf countries will undoubtedly trigger more unemployment in Egypt, adding that tourism companies, forexes and banks have been the most battered by the current crisis. “The Government should swiftly provide projects to absorb the returning workers. The SDF should offer loans to young people so they can launch small- and medium-sized ventures,” he stresses.
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