Migrant advocacy network praises Saudi abolition of ‘kafala system’

THE MIGRANT advocacy network, Churches Witnessing With Migrants–Philippines praised Saudi Arabia for abolishing the “kafala system,” saying, it is a positive step that will protect Filipino and other migrants workers.

The kafala system is used to monitor migrant laborers, working primarily in the construction and domestic sectors in Gulf Cooperation Council member states and a few neighboring countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. It gives Arab nationals and companies in those countries with sponsorship permits to employ foreign laborers, instead of recruitment agencies.

“We welcome the recent announcement of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development abolishing the notorious kafala system. For us, who have long been advocating for the rights and welfare of migrants, this is a positive step for the protection of our Filipino migrant workers, and other migrant workers as well. We hope that this will set precedent to other countries in the Gulf region who has implemented the same,” said Rev. Marie Sol Villalon, the spokesperson of Churches Witnessing With Migrants–Philippines and also coordinator of the Anti-Human Trafficking and Migrant Ministry of the United Methodist Church-Manila Episcopal Area.

Villalon said the abolition of the kafala system covers expatriate Filipinos and other foreign workers in Saudi Arabia to be employed and have mobility in and out of the Kingdom without the approval of a Saudi national as sponsor.

While the Villalon’s group commended Saudi’s Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who is seeking economic reforms in the country, “the network urges the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to extend this action to domestic or household workers, who bear the brunt of the kafala system.

“While recruitment through agencies is not an absolute assurance of protection to migrants deployed in these countries, the kafala system has brought the discrimination of domestic workers in a more horrific and grim state,” Villalon said, adding, “in essence, this system has defined the relationship of domestic workers with their employer. They were practically under their employer’s monitoring, supervision, and mercy, subjecting them to further exploitation, and slave-like working conditions.” (Rhoderick Benez and Malou Cablinda)

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