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Kafala System
Context:
The Kafala system, a complex and oppressive framework, has ravaged the lives of countless individuals.
More on News:
- A devastating fire in the Mangaf area of Al Ahmadi municipality in Kuwait resulted in the loss of 49 lives, with a significant majority being Indian migrant workers.
- The incident has once again brought attention to the lack of safety and deplorable living conditions of migrants in destination countries.
Indian Migrants in Kuwait:
- An estimated one million Indians work in Kuwait, accounting for a fifth of its population and 30 per cent of the workforce.
- They are the largest migrant worker segment in the country. Around 600,000 of them are from Kerala.
- The Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) 2023:
- Estimates that 2.2 million people from the state have migrated, with 80 per cent of them residing in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
- The majority of these migrants work in the unorganised sector, such as construction sites and factories, where they often face dangerous working conditions.
- Since migrants in Gulf countries do not have the option of permanent residency, they are not adequately protected and have few rights, which can lead to exploitative labour conditions similar to those observed in Qatar in the run-up to the World Cup.
- The Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) 2023:
Kafala System:
- It was created to supply cheap, plentiful labour in an era of booming economic growth.
- The kafala, or sponsorship, system defines the relationship between foreign workers and their local sponsor, or kafeel, which is usually their employer.
- This system is a complex of laws and practices that ensures the state and citizens hold all the power, while individual migrants are treated as temporary even if the dependency on their labour is near-permanent.
- It has been used in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—as well as Jordan and Lebanon.
Abuses under the Kafala system:
- Restricted movement and communications:
- Employers regularly confiscate passports, visas, and phones, and confine domestic workers to their homes.
- Non-domestic workers often live in overcrowded dorms, which puts them at greater risk of contracting illnesses such as COVID-19.
- Debt bondage:
- Although most host countries require employers to pay recruitment fees, these often get passed on to workers, who take out loans to pay them or become indebted to the recruiter.
- Forced labour: Deception or coercion by recruiters when enlisting workers amounts to forced labour.
- Contract substitution is a common tactic in which workers unwittingly accept poor wages and working conditions by signing multiple contracts, some in languages they don’t understand.
- Pervasive abuse of migrant workers under the system, with major international events such as the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup and Dubai World Expo 2020
- Irregular residency status: Workers depend on sponsors to remain in the country legally because sponsors can invalidate their status for any reason and migrant workers have no option of permanent residency.
- Inefficient dispute settlement and compensation mechanisms
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- Migrant workers who wish to pursue legal recourse against their employers face barriers like migrant workers will no longer be able to work with the same employer, thus putting their residency status at risk in most sponsorship systems.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the Employer-Migrant worker relationship in the Middle East recommends improving conditions for Migrant workers:
- A migrant worker’s entry, residence and work permit are not tied to a specific employer:
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- So that the employer no longer controls the terms and conditions of a migrant worker’s immigration and employment status in the country.
- A migrant worker is responsible for renewing his or her own visa, work and residence permits:
- To prevent a situation whereby a worker becomes undocumented and falls into irregular migration status due to an act of negligence by the employer.
- A migrant worker can resign and terminate her/his employment contract at will, without losing valid immigration status.
- A migrant worker can change employer without the consent of her/his current employer, and without losing valid immigration status:
- A migrant worker can exit the country without seeking approval from her/his employer:
- As it places serious restrictions on a migrant worker’s freedom of movement.
- Ratify international conventions including the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189), and the ILO Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930.
Recent developments to Improve Migrant workers situation:
- Qatar: 2015 law introduces a process of appeal for the migrant, in cases where the employer denies their request to leave the country.
- Saudi Arabia: Enacted new Implementing Regulations which made changes to a migrant worker’s ability to change employers, without the approval of the current sponsor/employer.
- UAE: A migrant worker should be able to end a contract for any reason by giving reasonable notice and without needing to obtain written approval from the current employer.
Way Forward:
There is an urgent need, especially given the large number of migrants from India to various parts of the world, to study the conditions of their migration and their lives in the destination country.
A national-level migration database is a necessary step forward to adequately understand the various sections of migrants from India and also the increasing trend of return migration, as observed in the latest KMS figures.