Wikipedia

Kafala system

system used to monitor migrant laborers in Arab countries

The Kafala system (sometimes spelled Kefala) is a structure which lays out the relationship between migrant workers and their employers in host countries. It is primarily used in nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC. It has been in place since the 1950s.

The Kafala system
Used since1950s
Countries used inSaudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Lebanon

The framework defines the binding relationship between the migrant employee and their employer.[1] Workers have a sponsor, often their employer, who is in control of their residency within the host nation. Mainly, it is used in the GCC, as well as some of the neighbouring countries. The main nations where it takes place are Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The Kafala system has come into criticism for allowing poor treatment of migrant workers. It allows for a system of unequal legal rights to be kept. In particular, migrant domestic workers suffer as they are given no legal protections. Some have claimed it is similar to modern day slavery. In the 21st Century, there have been some reforms to the Kafala system, seen in nations such as Bahrain and Qatar.

Overview

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The Kafala system allows employers within a host nation to employ workers from other nations, otherwise referred to as migrant workers.[2] This provides the migrant worker residence and employment in a host country, although it is tied to their employer or sponsor.[3]

The system does not allow migrants to stay permanently, instead they are permitted to work in the host nation for a short period of time, usually around two to three years.[4]

Migration in the GCC

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Map of the Gulf Cooperation Council

There is a lot of migration into countries that use the Kafala system, especially the GCC. Most nations in the GCC have a migrant population which is higher than those native to the country.[5] Overall, in 2020, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs said that the GCC contained over 30 million migrants.[6] Migrant workers make up a majority percentage of the workforce. Across the entire GCC, 70% of the regional labour market was made up of migrants.[7]

High migration levels have led to arguments that it is necessary to keep the unequal legal status for migrant workers. The United Arab Emirates claims the inequality helps preserve the state's national identity and also maintain a stable society.[8]

Migrant domestic workers

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Migrant domestic workers are an informal sector of the Kafala system. This means they do not have any outright legal protections in host nations.[9]

Of all of migrants in the GCC, in 2021 around 3.1 million were found to be domestic workers.[10] The largest number of domestic workers are found in Saudi Arabia, with nearly one million working there.[10]

Origins

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Etymology

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The term Kafala originates from Classical Arabic, and refers to the relationship between the Kafeel, who is a person in a position of authority, with the makfūl, who is the vulnerable employee.[11]

In theory, the Kafeel is to take legal responsibility for the makfūl, without benefitting from the relationship through exploitative means. This means that the relationship was created with the intentions of the protection of the employee by their employer.

History

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In the 1930s, oil was found in the Arabian shore. There was a lack of manual labour to deal with this discovery.[12] Since then, there has been a steady increase of migrant workers in the area. From the 1960s, the number of migrants has increased steadily. A large amount of migrants into the area have historically been from South Asia and Southeast Asia.[13]

Criticisms of the Kafala system

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Navi Pillay, Former United Nations High Commissoner for Human Rights

The Kafala system has come under criticism internationally. Most of this stems from the poor conditions which migrant workers live through.

Some critics have said the system is similar to slavery. The former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, claimed this in 2010.[14] The International Labour Organisation has also claimed that the system may invite forced labour.[15]

In particular, the rights migrant domestic workers is a cause for concern. This is due to the fact that they do not have any legal protections under the Kafala system.[9]

Conditions of the workers

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The conditions of workers in the Kafala system are seen as poor. The living conditions of workers are usually unhealthy. They are forced to live in overcrowded and unhygienic living conditions.[16] Often, little is done to deal with the extreme heat of the region. The most common cause of death in young men is cardiac arrest due to the heat.[17]

The worker's permission to be within a country is controlled by the host who is able to fire and deport them at will.[10] Fear of deportation means workers often stay in poor working conditions.

Freedom of movement

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Workers cannot leave the country without approval from their employer. Many employers take away their passports upon arrival, even though this is illegal in most host countries.[17] Leaving work is seen as a crime. This can be punished by imprisonment or deportation. This applies even to cases where workers are unhappy or abused at work.[10]

Controversies

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Modern slavery in Lebanon and Kuwait

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Female domestic workers face specific challenges under the system in Lebanon and Kuwait. Under the interviews conducted by Walk Free, an international human rights group, these women come from countries including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, the Philippines, and Sierra Leone.[18] Violence based on their gender is noticeable within their employers house, where they are forced to work. This violence includes limited movement from within their place of employment and the use of cameras to maintain control over these women. This represents a double challenge for these women, who are subject to exploitation based off their gender and their contract under the Kafala system.[18]

Attempts of these women to physically escape will often lead to their arrest by the police and forced return to their sponsor. These women tend not to seek help from the police because they often take the side of the employer, rather than the foreign worker.[19]

2022 World Cup in Qatar

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Inside of the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar

Qatar won the right to host the 2022 World Cup in 2010. This was the first time a Middle Eastern nation had hosted the competition.[20] In order to host the competition many new stadiums had to be built. Many of the people involved in building these were migrant labourers from the Kafala system. Of Qatar's workforce, 95% are migrant workers working in construction or domestic work.[21]

Journalists claimed that many construction workers had lost their lives building these stadiums. In 2021, UK newspaper The Guardian revealed that 6,500 people had died in relation to World Cup construction since 2010.[22] This is a number disputed by Qatari officials. The Secretary General of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, Hassan al-Thawadi, admitted that between 400 and 500 migrant workers died from any construction related to the World Cup.[23]

Reforms to the Kafala system

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Bahrain

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Bahrain is one of the states that has gone furthest in reforming the Kafala system. In 2009, officials announced that they would dismantle the system. The Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) was established. This would now be in charge of sponsoring migrant workers instead of private employers.[24]

Some amendments have been made which allow foreign workers to move from one employer to another without the consent from their first employer.[19] In theory, these changes make the worker less vulnerable or bound by a specific contract.

However, there have been criticisms of Bahrain's claims to have abolished the system. Some critics say that it is the same system as before, with the rules not properly being changed.[25]

Qatar

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Qatar was the first nation to allow migrant workers to change their job without getting consent from their employer beforehand.[26] This was prompted by the fact that the total population of migrants in Qatar is four times more than the total population of nationals, creating a general fear to the country's national security.[19]

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References

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  1. ↑ "What Is the Kafala System?". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  2. ↑ jkg66 (2023-02-01). "Understanding the Kafala Migrant Labor System in Qatar and the Middle East at Large, with ILO Senior Migration Specialist Ryszard Cholewinski". Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. Retrieved 2024-05-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ Talebi, Tessa (2021-09-16). "The Kafala System as Racialized Servitude". Project on Middle East Political Science. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  4. ↑ Damir-Geilsdorf, Sabine; Pelican, Michaela (2019). "Between regular and irregular employment: subverting the kafala system in the GCC countries". Migration and Development. 8 (2): 1 – via Routledge.
  5. ↑ Bajracharya, Rooja; Sijapati, Bandita (March 2012). "The Kafala System and Its Implications for Nepali Domestic Workers". Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility. 1: 2 – via academia.edu.
  6. ↑ "Asia-GCC Officials Address Progress and Challenges in Safe Migration and Labour Recruitment". roasiapacific.iom.int. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  7. ↑ Damir-Geilsdorf, Sabine (2019). "Between regular and irregular employment: subverting the kafala system in the GCC countries". Migration and Development. 8 (2): 1 – via Routledge.
  8. ↑ "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace", SpringerReference, Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, retrieved 2024-05-09
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bajracharya, Rooja; Sijapati, Bandita (March 2012). "The Kafala System and Its Implications for Nepali Domestic Workers". Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility. 1: 1 – via academia.edu.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar; Silvey, Rachel (2021-06-07). "The governance of the Kafala system and the punitive control of migrant domestic workers". Population, Space and Place. 27 (5). doi:10.1002/psp.2487. ISSN 1544-8444.
  11. ↑ Jureidini, Ray; Hassan, Said Fares (2019-11-06), "The Islamic Principle of Kafala as Applied to Migrant Workers: Traditional Continuity and Reform", Migration and Islamic Ethics, BRILL, pp. 92–109, ISBN 978-90-04-40640-7, retrieved 2024-04-25
  12. ↑ Damir-Geilsdor, Sabine; Pelican, Michaela (2019). "Between regular and irregular employment: subverting the kafala system in the GCC countries". Migration and Development. 8 (2): 1 – via Routledge.
  13. ↑ Damir-Geilsdorf, Sabine; Lindner, Ulrike; Muller, Gesine; Tappe, Oliver; Zeuske, Michael (2016). "Contract Labour and Debt Bondage in the Arab Gulf States. Policies and Practices within the Kafala System". Bonded Labour: Global and Comparative Perspectives (18th-21st Century) (PDF). Verlag, Bielefeld: Transcript. p. 163. ISBN 978-3-8394-3733-9.
  14. ↑ Malaeb, Hanan N. (2015-10-21). "The "Kafala" System and Human Rights: Time for a Decision". Arab Law Quarterly. 29 (4): 307–342. doi:10.1163/15730255-12341307. ISSN 0268-0556.
  15. ↑ "Labour Migration in the Arab States | International Labour Organization". www.ilo.org. 2016-08-25. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  16. ↑ "FAQ - Migrant RightsMigrant Rights". Migrant Rights. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "FAQ - Migrant RightsMigrant Rights". Migrant Rights. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Life under the kafala system". Walk Free. Retrieved 2024-05-14.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Malaeb, Hanan N. (2015-10-21). "The "Kafala" System and Human Rights: Time for a Decision". Arab Law Quarterly. 29 (4): 307–342. doi:10.1163/15730255-12341307. ISSN 1573-0255.
  20. ↑ "Profile of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™". FIFA Publications. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  21. ↑ "Migrant Workers and the Qatar World Cup | Human Rights Watch". 2021-08-02. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  22. ↑ Pattisson, Pete; McIntyre, Niamh; Mukhtar, Imran (2021-02-23). "Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since World Cup awarded". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  23. ↑ "Qatar World Cup Chief Publicly Admits High Migrant Death Tolls | Human Rights Watch". 2022-11-30. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
  24. ↑ 'Policy Brief No. 2: Reform of the Kafala (Sponsorship) System', Migrant Forum in Asia Secretariat
  25. ↑ Rights, Migrant (2009-11-11). "Three months after the Sponsorship system in Bahrain was "scrapped", what really changed?". Migrant Rights. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
  26. ↑ "Qatar: Significant Labor and Kafala Reforms | Human Rights Watch". 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2024-05-09.
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