It’s time to reconsider the sponsorship system

By Mazen Abdulrazzaq Balilah The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) in Saudi Arabia was the first body that discussed the Kingdom’s sponsorship system. The NSHR carried out a study that showed that the system consists of bylaws that contradict the Kingdom’s labor and resident laws. Since 2008, the NSHR has demanded its cancelation. According to a local newspaper, Dr. Bandar Hajjar from the NSHR said that Bahrain has started implementing a new labor law that will see the country’s sponsorship system draw to an end in April this year. The new system will be gradually introduced and implemented by granting 48,000 foreign workers temporary, yet legal, work permits; 2,000 employees will be granted legal work permits each month. A new law regulating the exit-entry of migrant workers in Qatar has also recently been implemented. It will completely cancel the previous sponsorship system and ensure flexibility, freedom and greater protection for more than 2.1 million foreign workers in the country. The UAE and Kuwait are also seriously considering the issue. Kuwaiti sources have confirmed the abolition of the country’s sponsorship system and the introduction of new measures in cooperation with Kuwait’s General Authority for Manpower. The abolition of the sponsorship law and radical changes to the system cannot be undertaken in isolation from the other states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. We have to reconsider the sponsorship system in light of the fact that we were the first to discuss the issue via the NSHR.