8 children among 13 killed in Jordan fire
Amman: thirteen pakistan is, including eight children, died when a fire swept through their makeshift dwellings on a farming estate in the Jordan Valley, Jordan’s civil defence said on Monday.
There were three other injuries in the fire that broke out after midnight that initial signs showed could have been an electrical fire, civil defence spokesman Iyad al Amre said in a statement.
Thousands of foreign labourers live in in private farms in the Jordan Valley, a fertile vegetable and fruit growing area.
Another civil defence source said two families lived in corrugated iron sheds that housed immigrant labourers and that a police investigation had been opened into the incident. Three other people were taken to hospital suffering from shock and burns.
Jordan has in recent years seen several deadly incidents among Syrian refugees living in camps during the winter, such as fires caused by electrical faults or choking from domestic gas stoves.
Recently, Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Al Razzaz said the country’s draft 2020 budget approved aims to spur stagnant economic growth to create jobs and ease high unemployment.
Razzaz told a group of university students that maintaining the country’s much-vaunted economic and financial stability rather than imposing any new Imf-inspired taxes was the main driving force for the draft budget, which was approved by the cabinet. Imf-inspired taxes triggered protests in 2018 that were the biggest in years.
“Our direction now is not to raise taxes but to attain economic growth that leads to jobs for youths,” Razzaz said of the budget.
Economists and analysts say low growth and insufficient job creation are the kingdom’s two main problems, although fiscal prudence to rein in public debt that has hit a record 94% of gross domestic product should not be jeopardised.
Jordan is pinning hopes on direct cash support by major Western donors that traditionally cover chronic budget shortfalls. The staunch US ally has navigated years of instability at its borders, including wars in Iraq and Syria and conflict in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The IMF said it had begun talks over a new three-year programme that would gave priority to growth and job creation
Jordanian officials, mindful of mass protests in neighb our ing countries, including lebanon and iraq, in the past month over eroding living standards and corruption have warned the IMF that pushing the country towards more austerity moves could spark renewed civil unrest, diplomatic sources said.