Human rights group lauds proposal to abolish Saudi sponsorship system

CAMPAIGN group Human Rights Watch said the Saudi Labour Ministry’s proposal to abolish the employer-based sponsorship system is a positive step for migrant workers. 

 

Human Rights Watch said the sponsorship system fuels human rights abuses against migrants by tying their legal residency in the country to one employer. 

 

“The current sponsorship system makes it easy for employers to intimidate, cheat, and abuse migrant workers,” said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. 

 

“Reducing the immense control that employers have over migrant workers would be a positive step toward fighting exploitation,” he added. 

Human Rights Watch said Saudi Arabia “would also need to amend the Residency Law so that a migrant worker no longer would require a sponsor’s consent to change jobs or leave the country.” 

 

Migrant workers’ residency permits are currently linked to their employers, who are considered their sponsors, under articles 5, 11, and 44bis of the Saudi Residency Law of 1952 and subsequent amendments. The employer’s consent is required if a migrant worker wants to change jobs or leave the country. 

 

The proposal of the Saudi Labor Ministry would shift sponsorship from employers to private companies tasked with providing recruitment and employment services for migrant workers. 

 

The Labour Ministry proposal specifies that migrant workers would no longer have to obtain their employer’s consent to go on the Hajj, get married, or visit relatives in Saudi Arabia. 

 

Such restrictions are not required under current Saudi law, but are often imposed by employers and government offices, Human Rights Watch said. 

The Labour Ministry based its recommendations on a five-year study it conducted. The ministry estimates that there are approximately nine million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, primarily from Asia and Africa. 

 

Saudi Arabia voted in favor of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, adopted in June 2011. 

 

The ILO Convention establishes the first global standards for the estimated 50 million to 100 million domestic workers worldwide. 

The ILO Convention requires governments to: » provide domestic workers with labor 

protections equivalent to those of other 

 

workers, » monitor recruitment agencies rigorously, and » provide protection against violence. 

 

“Domestic workers have been at high risk of abuse both because of the current sponsorship system and because they are not covered by the labor law,” Wilcke said. “Saudi authorities should extend labor protections to domestic workers and set up strong safeguards over private recruiters.”