Document Details

2013

International Labour Organisation

178

Geneva

***: Both employers and workers interviewed in the region recognized that these
rules governing their relations provide workers in exploitative situations with
very few options to leave their employer. “My job is very good,” explained an
Indian security guard in the UAE, “but I cannot leave before finishing my
contract.” An owner of a garment and clothing factory in Jordan confirmed
that “it is not possible for a worker to transfer from a company to another,
unless the factory shuts down”.261 Officials from the Kuwait Chamber of
Commerce defended the operation of the kafala system, arguing that “we
invest in workers. There are costs associated with bringing people over and
training them, which are paid by the employer. There must therefore also be a
dividend for the employers.”262 However, in preventing workers from moving
at will from one employer to another, the kafala system constrains mobility
and thereby prevents the efficient functioning of the labour market.
In the same way as for domestic and sex work, the reliance on the kafala
system in these male-dominated sectors creates an unequal power dynamic.
Egyptian construction workers in Lebanon found that “most of the time,
when you have a sponsor, he controls everything”. Sri Lankan and Indian
workers at a packaging company in Lebanon argued that “the problem is that
you can’t change employer, so if you have a bad one who exploits you, you’ll
have to stay with him as it’s pretty much impossible to leave your employer”.
Egyptian workers in Kuwait also identified as their main problems “the kafala
system and the way Kuwaitis treat foreigners, as if they were superior to us”.
Others working at a soda company in Kuwait took a different view, saying
“the problem is not with the Kuwait society because they are good people,
but with the laws”. The KTUF positioned itself unambiguously on the issue
in 2012 when it submitted a proposal to the Government to abolish the
kafala system. p. 118

***:Although not all the trafficking processes described in the study are found
in all the countries examined, striking similarities exist. The reliance on the
kafala (sponsorship) system is inherently problematic, as it creates an unequal
power dynamic between the employer and the worker. Deficits in labour
law coverage reinforce the underlying vulnerabilities of migrant workers in
domestic servitude, in the entertainment industry and in the agricultural
sector. Significant gaps in national legislation restrict the ability of migrant
workers to organize, to terminate their employment contracts and to change
employer. Even where access to legal redress is provided under national law,
and human trafficking is criminalized and punishable, there have been few
prosecutions and convictions. The lack of strategic litigation against employers
and private employment agents who violate the laws means there is little to
deter others from confining migrant workers in exploitative situations against
their will. p. 14

***: some of them will bring in workers for whom there is no real
demand. Once these workers have arrived, they will have no choice but to
enter the informal labour market; and as they will be dependent
on the kafeels for renewal of their work and residency permits, the payments
charged for these may well increase their indebtedness. As a result, the kafala
system works against the intent of the immigration law, by making it possible
to acquire residency permits for workers even without any formal guarantee
of employment. Migrant workers who find themselves without the jobs they
expected will join the informal economy in order to recoup the cost of their
migration -. 113 +

** the worker may indeed know that the contract is a fake but will still travel,
having been deceived by his employer, agent, relatives or friends about the
legality of working for another employer. The problem is exacerbated by the
ready availability of visas, allowing the recruitment of workers beyond the
demand for labour in the destination countries; as a result, many workers
who have migrated find themselves with irregular status and working in
exploitative conditions...This deception, coupled with coercion once in work and the impossibility of
leaving the employer, creates victims of human trafficking for forced labour - p. 111

Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Regional relevance, Israel, and UAE

English