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Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your UPSC current affairs knowledge nugget on the Kafala system.
(Relevance: Emigration of workers has been a topic of discussion for quite some time. As the central government moves to introduce an Act to regulate overseas mobility, this issue becomes highly significant. A large section of India’s population migrates to Gulf countries for work; hence, this development holds importance from your exam perspective.)
Recently, Saudi Arabia has decided to replace the Kafala System with a contractual model, giving migrant workers more rights and freedom to work in the kingdom, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. The Kafala System (sponsor system) has been in place in Saudi Arabia and much of the Middle East for decades. The system is still prevalent in Kuwait, Qatar, and Oman.
In 2009, Bahrain became the first country in the Middle East to abolish the Kafala system. The UAE diluted its Kafala system in 2015, allowing migrant workers whose contracts had expired to obtain a new permit and remain in the country on a 6-month job seeker visa.
1. The Kafala System refers to a binding contract between migrant workers and their local sponsor, under which they can only work for the specific employer throughout the period of their residence in the country.
2. Under the System, the state gives local individuals or companies sponsorship permits to employ foreign workers. The travel expenses, housing, often in dorm-like accommodation are covered by the employer. Sponsors sometimes also use private recruiting agencies in the countries of origin to find workers and facilitate their entry in the host country.
3. The workers require permission from their sponsor to transfer jobs, end employment, and enter or exit the host countries. Even leaving the workplace without permission is considered an offence that can create a perception of strong control by the sponsor over migrant workers. Workers face limited options in cases of unfavorable conditions; as a result, some critics have described this system as a form of modern-day slavery.
4. In the 1950s, the system expanded in the newly oil-rich Gulf countries that required foreign labourers to work on large-scale infrastructure projects. They required floating workers who could come during periods of booming growth and return home when the economy weakened.
5. The Kafala system came under international spotlight during the run-up to and aftermath of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, as reports revealed that thousands of migrant workers—primarily from South Asian countries including India—died while working under excruciating conditions on World Cup-related construction projects.
6. As per the reports published by The Guardian, 6,500 migrant workers from South Asia have died in Qatar in the last 10 years, mainly after the commencement of construction projects in 2010 for the World Cup. The highest death count was of Indians — 2,711 workers — followed by migrants from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Among the deceased, 69 per cent reportedly died due to natural causes.
7. Despite the change in the trend of international migration from India, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as a destination for migration remain robust. According to the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) 2023 report, 80.5 per cent of immigration from Kerala is to GCC countries.
8. Experts have emphasised that there is a need for improving migration governance with the help of reliable data. The Kerala Migration Surveys, conducted every five years since 1998, have greatly improved the understanding of migration trends in Kerala, enabling better policy interventions. This has been replicated by other states as well.
9. The Ministry of External Affairs has proposed to introduce the Overseas Mobility (Facilitation and Welfare) Bill, 2025 in the Parliament that will replace the existing Emigration Act, 1983. It aims to create a regulatory mechanism for their safe migration. The absence of a comprehensive database of Indian emigrants remains a significant gap that this bill tries to overcome.
10. The Bill seeks overall emigration management, while also instituting regulatory mechanisms for safe and orderly migration, governing overseas employment of Indian nationals. It also establishes a framework that creates policies and schemes for the protection and promotion of the welfare of emigrants.
1. According to Walk Free, “modern slavery” refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, or abuses of power.
2. Modern slavery is an umbrella term and includes a whole variety of abuses such as forced labour, forced marriage, debt bondage, sexual exploitation, human trafficking, slavery-like practices, forced or servile marriage, and the sale and exploitation of children.
3. Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations resolves to end modern slavery. It states: “Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.”
4. According to the latest edition of the Global Slavery Index 2023, published by Walk Free, a human rights organisation, on any given day in 2021, as many as 50 million people were living in “modern slavery”. Among these 50 million, 28 million suffer from forced labour and 22 million from forced marriages. Of these 50 million, 12 million are children.
The Global Slavery Index is released by which of the following:
(a) United Nations Human Rights Council
(b) Walk Free
(c) Hope for Justice
(d) Migrant Help
| Answer key |
| (b) |
(Sources: How we can protect migrant workers, Explained: In a year of mass deportations, what India’s new Overseas Mobility Bill seeks to change, Migration from Kerala is up, but who is leaving the state’s shores?, The Kerala migration story: Decline in migration to Gulf, over 40% emigrants are Muslim)
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