Kuwait to abolish ‘sponsorship’ of foreign workers

MANILA, Philippines—The Kuwaiti government’s plan to scrap the “kafeel” or sponsorship system of hiring foreign laborers will mean that Filipinos and other foreigners working in the emirate will no longer be treated as indentured servants, according to the Migrante-Middle East.

The plan to abolish the kafeel was announced recently by Mohammed Al-Afasi, Kuwait’s minister for social affairs and labor.

Al-Afasi said the government would be creating in February a public authority to take charge of recruitment and deployment of migrant workers.

John Leonard Monterona, the Saudi-based Migrante-Mideast regional coordinator, said the abolition of the kafeel would “give leeway and freedom to expatriate workers in terms of travel and the opportunity to change and look for a better job within Kuwait.”
According to Monterona, the sponsorship system emanates from the old Arab social system whereby slaves are considered private property.

The employer issues the visa invitation letter to the employee who is required to work only for the original employer, called the “sponsor.” The employer then assumes full economic and legal responsibility for the foreign worker during the contract period.

Foreigners in Kuwait may not enter, work, change jobs, or leave the country without the permission of the sponsor, which may be a citizen, a company or a government official.

“In essence and in practice, the sponsorship system is indentured servitude. A person under sponsorship is a ‘bonded laborer’ who is under contract to the employer in exchange for an extension to the period of indenture, which could thereby continue indefinitely,” Monterona said. –Jerome Aning, Philippine Daily Inquirer