Under the kafala system, many workers are unable to quit or change jobs, as their legal status is bound to their employer. On paper, the change was revolutionary—workers who had previously suffered while employers did not pay them, or found themselves stuck in jobs that did not match the contracts they had signed in their home countries, could find another job without sacrificing the huge fees they had paid back home to come to Bahrain. And why is it so bad, exactly? The only way around this requirement is to seek special permission from the Ministry of Interior, and in some situations to file a court case. There are some 2 million Filipinos working in the Middle East, whose remittances are a lifeline to the Philippine economy, according to government data. Most of these migrants come from South or Southeast Asian or Africa. KAFALA (SPONSORSHIP) SYSTEM The Kafala (Sponsorship) System emerged in the 1950’s to regulate the relationship between employers and migrant workers in many countries in West Asia. And since migrant workers are so powerless under this system, one can only imagine the degree of abuse that goes undocumented in the region. It remains the routine practice in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United This spring, Al Jazeera reported on a group of 250 migrant staff members of a cleaning company in the town of Al Wukair who are without work and rely solely on food donations to get by. Kafala (arabisch كفالة, DMG Kafāla) bezeichnet ein System der Bürgschaft, das in der Arabischen Welt, vor allem aber in den arabischen Golfstaaten und in manchen anderen Staaten des Nahen Ostens bei Arbeitnehmern und Investoren aus Drittländern angewandt wird.. EXCHANGE RATES . Meanwhile, rigid sponsorship laws and regulations continue to define the choices and conditions of the millions of migrant workers in the region. The article “Reforming the Kafala: Challenges and Opportunities Moving Forward,” by Azfar Khan and Helene Harroff-Tavel, contains a good overview of promised and attempted kafala reform in the region. In Qatar, these essential workers account for 80-90 percent of the labor market, in UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain the share is nearly identical, and in Saudi Arabia and Oman they comprise anywhere between 60-70 percent. The Philippines and Kuwait earlier this month signed a landmark deal that prohibits common practices under the kafala, including the confiscation of OFW passports by employers. Less than 3,000 of the 250,000 registered migrant workers have successfully fled Lebanon, despite the current lack of job opportunities and economic crises. When workers approach government bodies or their embassies for help getting back their passports, the typical response is to call employers and request that they return the passport. Is it solely to blame for migrant workers’ problems in the region? I am the only breadwinner in my family…I have paid huge amounts to my sponsor and I have borrowed from many friends, slept hungry many nights…. Most workers pay huge recruitment fees, as many as a few thousand dollars, in their home country in order to obtain jobs in the Gulf. Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Mohammed al-Afasi announces that the abolishment of the system will be Kuwait’s “gift to foreign workers on the anniversary of Kuwait’s liberation” from Iraqi occupation in 1991. If a worker leaves a job without permission, the employer has the power to cancel his or her residence visa, automatically turning the worker into an illegal resident in the country. In one famous case, professional football player Zahir Belounis, a French citizen playing for a Qatari professional football team, was denied an exit permit for nearly two years after he got into a legal dispute with the team’s management. Source: Arabtimes Kuwait. In many cases, their only option is to pursue a court case—a lengthy and costly process that many prefer not to pursue. A protest against the kafala system in Beirut, Lebanon in 2018. Credit: Getty. Instead, like Bahrain, Kuwait kept the sponsorship system in place, but made it easier for migrants to change sponsors. The accord also requires 12-hour rest time for workers, provides for a template employment contract, and assures the creation of a 24/7 hotline where Filipino workers may report abuses and a special police unit to respond to such complaints. What if his food is not adequate? When discussing migrant workers, we will look at three key restrictions that are part of the kafala system. The writer is an independent human rights researcher and writer living in Cairo. Ahn Nga Longva’s book Walls Built on Sand: Migration, Exclusion, and Society in Kuwait, based on extensive fieldwork and historical research, is an insightful portrait of how migration in Kuwait, as well as how the relationship between migrants and nationals has developed. As one of the worst economically impacted countries from the ongoing pandemic, Lebanon has exhibited gross maltreatment of migrant workers. This system, considered a modern form of slavery, allows private enterprises to manage the visas of their migrant employees. This comes as Qatar will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup in the Arabian Peninsula nation. Their wages may be kept artificially low, since sponsors don’t need to rely on paying attractive wages to keep talented or experienced employees. Employers have an incentive to pay workers less, skimp on benefits, and demand more hours of work. One major factor that also contributes to their entrapment in exploitative working conditions is the system of recruitment fees. However, in other countries, employers can also take steps to prevent their sponsored employees from leaving the country without their consent.

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