SAUDI ARABIA
August 8th,2020
Centre Point, Al Faisaliyah Centre, Tamkeen Towers, and Diamond towers are a few of the many magnificent skyscrapers that have enhanced Saudi Arabia’s Skyline. These architectural marvels exist primarily thanks to Migrant Workers There are approximately 9 million Migrant Workers working in Saudi Arabia but unfortunately, it is still ranked as one of the worst countries for worker rights according to Euro news. “It was like a bad dream,” one migrant worker from the Philippines said after working in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia follows the Kafala system, which denies the migrant workers the basic human right to freedom of movement.
Under the Kafala system:
A migrant worker’s immigration status is legally bound to an individual employer or sponsor (Kafeel) for their contract period.
This implies that the migrant worker cannot enter the country, transfer employment, or leave the country for any reason without first obtaining explicit written permission from the Kafeel.
The worker must be sponsored by a Kafeel in order to enter the destination country and remains tied to this Kafeel throughout their stay.
The Kafeel is obligated to report to the immigration authorities if the migrant worker leaves their employment and must ensure the worker leaves the country promptly after the contract ends.
The workers are not provided with any severance fees and have to even pay for their flight home. including paying for the flight home.
Migrant Workers are treated as third-class individuals in a country where they have immensely contributed to its development. The Kafala System has only allowed Migrant worker abuse to thrive. A few of the multitudes of cases proving this include:
A Bangladeshi worker reported that he was forced to work ten to twelve hours a day, occasionally even throughout the night without overtime pay, repairing underground water pipes in the city of Tabuk. Many others were not paid salaries for the first two months and had to borrow money from associates to purchase food.
An Indian migrant also said that he was paid $133 a month for working an average of sixteen hours daily in Ha'il.
Another migrant from the Philippines said that he had worked sixteen to eighteen hours a day at a restaurant in Hofuf, leaving him so exhausted that, he "felt mentally retarded.
The employer of a migrant from Bangladesh, who worked as a butcher in Dammam, forced him to leave the kingdom with six months of his salary unpaid.
These migrant workers are the backbone of the Saudi Arabian infrastructure. Is this what they deserve?