Jordanian garment factory employs Syrian refugees for exports

Life as we know it today is filled with modern technology to help us cope with our daily functions and enhance our well-being.  But at the same time, in many parts of the world today, the basic needs of life are threatened by war, poverty and hunger. 

Oryana Awaisheh, executive manager of Jerash Garments
and Fashion Manufacturing of Jordan, shows off sportswear
made with the help of Syrian refugees.
Photo © Lucia Carpio 2018

While visiting textile and garment industry trade fairs recently I found an abundance of the latest wearable technology and was also pleased to find garment companies that are offering hope to those in despair.

One such company is the Jerash Garments & Fashions Manufacturing Company, a factory in Jordan which has 2,800 employees and is one of the pioneering companies that has been part of an aid programme to train refugees from Syria to manufacture garments in its facilities.

The international aid programme offers Jordan concessional loans and preferential trade terms in return for opening its labour market to some of the estimated 1.3 million refugees who fled there during the war in Syria.

I met Ms Oryana Awaisheh, executive manager of Jerash in Paris at the Texworld group of trade events, notably Apparel Sourcing, which along with Avantex, Shawls&Scarves, Texworld and Texworld Denim Paris was held at Le Bourget in north Paris, 11 – 14 February where 18 different countries had converged to showcase their latest on offer to the garment and textile industry.  Michael Scherpe, Président of fair organiser Messe Frankfurt France, likened the congregation of different nations to the Winter Olympics held concurrently in Pyeongcheng, Korea.

Jordan was one of the countries that participated in the Texworld / Apparel Sourcing
fair in Le Bourget, Paris, February 11 - 14, 2018/
Photo © Lucia Carpio 2018 

Ms Awaisheh of Jerash in Jordan explained that the aid programme to help Syrian refugees had been trying in the beginning because few Syrians wanted to work in factories where the pay was not as high as other industries.

Finally in June last year, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) brought in new rules and the factory could qualify to export to the EU tariff-free by meeting the Syrian worker quota on a single production line, rather than the whole factory.  

Encouraged, Awaisheh visited refugee camps to meet women (as the garment sector hires a largely female workforce) and also attended job fairs, and invited refugees to tour the factory.  She then set up a daycare centre and arranged transport to facilitate the refugees' participation.  Eventually after a few months, Awaisheh was able to recruit 85 female workers to work in the factory and thus qualify for export to Europe.

Established 18 years ago, the vertically set-up Jerash’s main export market is the US, at 1.8 Billion USD in 2017, and it also has Free Trade Agreement with Canada, the EU (including Norway, and Switzerland), Singapore, Turkey and countries in the gulf region.

The company is accredited and compliance approved to make for established sportswear brands, including North Face, Columbia, Land’s End, North Face, Nautica, Timberland as well as for Philip-Van Heusen which owns Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, IZOD and Speedo.  Its workforce include workers from Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal in addition to Syria.

The participation of Jordanian companies at the February 2018 edition of Apparel Sourcing, was supported by Mr Hassan Nsour, who is responsible for Qualifying Industrial Zones at the Ministry for Industry and Trade, in association with the World Bank integrated-programme for Syrian refugees. Mr Adel Tawileh, board member at the Jordanian Chamber of Commerce, said they met their main goal of the fair, meeting fashion labels and also independent designers, who were mainly from Europe.   He said, “Our firms were especially surprised by the success of the uniform & workwear segment, men’s suits and women’s clothing with Middle Eastern embroidery.”