Kafala system

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This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2024)

The kafala system (also spelled "kefala system"; Arabic: نظام الكفالة, romanized: niẓām al-kafāla; meaning "sponsorship system") is a system that exists in many of the Arab countries in the Middle East, including most of the countries of the Arabian Peninsula,^[2] which involves binding migrant workers to a specific employer throughout the period of their residence in a country. Essentially the same system existed in Israel under the label "binding labour," until that country's Supreme Court eliminated it in 2006, although migrant domestic workers in Israel are still reportedly bound to employers.^[3][4] The kafala system is noted by human-rights and labor-rights organizations for facilitating the exploitation of migrant workers, who are unable to quit their jobs for their term of contract and dependent on their employer for their visa and legal status in the country.

The system requires migrant workers to have an in-country sponsor, usually their employer, who is responsible for their visa and legal status. This practice has been criticized by human rights organizations for creating easy opportunities for the exploitation of workers, as many employers take away passports and abuse their workers with little chance of legal repercussions and even repatriation.^[5][6] The International Trade Union Confederation estimated 2.4 million enslaved domestic workers in the Gulf countries in its 2014 report, mainly from India, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Nepal.^[7]

According to The Economist, "The migrant workers' lot is unlikely to improve until the reform of the kafala system, whereby workers are beholden to the employers who sponsored their visas. The system blocks domestic competition for overseas workers in the Gulf countries."^[8]