KAFALA SYSTEM

Subject : International Issues

Context : Saudi Arabia announced reforms to its controversial “kafala” or “sponsorship” system of foreign workers’ visa that human rights groups say is a form of indentured servitude.

Concept :

• The Kafala (Sponsorship) System emerged in the 1950’s to regulate the relationship between employers and migrant workers in many countries in West Asia.
• It remains the routine practice in the Gulf countries and also in the Arab states of Jordan and Lebanon.
• It is introduced to provide temporary, rotating labour that could be rapidly brought into the country in economic boom and expelled during less affluent periods, with the event setting in motion a huge construction programme employing foreign workers.

Features and criticism:

• Under the Kafala system a migrant worker’s immigration status is legally bound to an individual employer or sponsor (kafeel) for their contract period.
• The migrant worker cannot enter the country, transfer employment nor leave the country for any reason without first obtaining explicit written permission from the kafeel.
• Often the kafeel exerts further control over the migrant worker by confiscating their passport and travel documents, despite legislation in some destination countries that declares this practice illegal.
• The power that the Kafala system delegates to the sponsor over the migrant worker, has been likened to a contemporary form of slavery.