Kuwait to scrap sponsorship system

The Kuwaiti sponsorship system had virtually enslaved Indian immigrants.

Indians working in Kuwait will be a major beneficiary as the Gulf state plans to scrap its sponsorship system for foreign workers,a practice that has often been described as modern-day slavery.

The sponsorship system will be scrapped in February next year with the launch of labour affairs authority ,Labour Minister Mohammad Al Afassi said.

Under the present system,foreigners cannot enter,work in,switch jobs in or leave a Gulf country without the approval of a sponsor who has full control over their movements.

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“This will be our gift to expatriates on the occasion of Liberation Day,” Al Afassi told Kuwait’s Al Rai daily.

Al Afassi has been spearheading a drive to do away with the system that has often been described as modern-day slavery.

Almost two thirds of Kuwait’s total population of 3.3 million people is expatriate workers,a large number of whom are Indians.

Kuwait will become the second Gulf country to abolish the system after Bahrain,which decided in 2009 to end its longstanding requirement for all foreign workers to be sponsored by a citizen.

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Local and international organisations have often criticised the existing system and have made repeated calls for its elimination even as the business communities have been lobbying in support of the sponsorship system.

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