CAIRO: Increasing foreign employment strongly affected Egyptians' opportunities to find jobs in different travel agencies. Most hotels laid off Egyptian employees and kept the foreigners, violating the articles of labor Act No. 12 of 2003. The law conditions are the percentage of foreign labors should not exceed 10 percent of the total labor of the facility. Foreign labor should perform missions Egyptians can't do and the foreign labors should be granted a one-year license in which they train Egyptian labor. Ahmed Abdallah can communicate in three foreign languages; English, French and Russian. He also boasts a 10-year experience and yet he failed to find an opportunity in a travel agency because foreign labors controlled these agencies. Officials of Sharm el-Shiekh hotels justified this situation by saying there is need for foreign labor, especially Russians, in specific sections since public relations department requires workers fluent in Russian. They blamed the Ministry of Manpower in this regard for not providing qualified Egyptian labors for such missions. An official in Saboi tourist group said the percentage of foreign labor in about 200 hotels in Sharm el-Shiekh estimates between two to eight percent, confirming that such percentage doesn't affect the Egyptian employment rate. He stressed the importance of the foreign labor in such hotels. On the other hand, a former official in the Ministry of Manpower, Ibrahim Ali said the ministry doesn't provide enough training centers to qualify Egyptian youth to work in tourism market and to replace the foreign labors. He added, "The education system also doesn't qualify the youth to join the labor market." He clarified the ministry owns 38 training centers to train about 12 thousand Egyptians. Their budget reached 12 million EGP (U.S. $2 million) annually. The training centers provide training opportunities in different careers, including tourism. An official in the Ministry of Manpower, Eman al-Nahas, defended the ministry's role in providing work opportunities in tourism. She said the ministry regulates foreign labor to support the Egyptian labor, and adding that training Egyptian labor is the responsibility of the facilities. According to the labor Act, foreign employees should train their Egyptian counterparts to be qualified to bear the responsibility of work. Arabic here
