Likud Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara, the acting minister of the Regional Cooperation Ministry, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that serious talks are under way to open up a new border crossing with Jordan near the Dead Sea in order to ease tourist travel and bring in more Jordanian workers, replacing illegal African migrants.

A round table discussion is going to be held on Tuesday at a Dead Sea hotel with the head of the Tamar Regional Council, Dov Litvinoff.

The new crossing would be located near the Dead Sea, said Kara, offering an additional crossing besides in the South in Eilat or in the North near Beit Shean. The Allenby Bridge crossing is meant for Palestinians and foreigners.

The new crossing would boost tourism and further facilitate the replacing of African migrant workers with Jordanians, he said.

“Last week, 1,500 Jordanian day workers started working in Eilat,” said Kara, adding that so far it is working well and the Jordanian workers stay for 8 hours and then return home to their country at the end of each day.

“If we succeed, we will be able to bring 4000 Jordanian workers to the Dead Sea to work in hotels instead of the Africans,” said Kara.

This would help solve the illegal immigrant African problem, he argued, since they would no longer come if there were no jobs to be found.

Further, explained Kara, goods are currently being transferred from Turkey to the Port in Haifa and on to Jordan by truck. From Jordan the goods are spread to other Arab states.

Asked if there could be a security issue with allowing Jordanian workers into the country, the deputy minister responded that “Palestinian or Jordanian workers were never the problem.” Moreover, each person that enters is known and checked, he added.

read full article at source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Ayoub-Kara-Hire-Jordanian-workers-not-African-migrants-434297