Expert seeks review of sponsorship - Gulf Times
By Nour Abuzant
ENDING practices like “confiscating” the passports of expatriate workers and preventing them from changing jobs will help countries in the Gulf region fight human trafficking more effectively, an American delegate to an official conference on the subject has said.
Talking to Gulf Times on the sidelines of the “first scientific conference” on “Human Trafficking: Theory and Practice”, Professor Mohamed Matar, of the John Hopkins University, said alternative steps to safeguard the interests of sponsors should be found.
Legal and political experts are attending the two-day conference, organised by Qatar and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).
Prof Matar said that keeping the passport with the sponsor constituted, along with other factors, “a kind of human trafficking”.
He said he was not, in principle, against the sponsorship system “but some provisions, especially the exit permits, should be reviewed”.
“I have discussed the sponsorship system with officials from the GCC labour ministries on many occasions. No law says that the passport should stay with the sponsor, but it has become a habit and the workers deserve to be treated in a better way.”
Regarding the claims of “low salaries” given to workers in the Gulf, he said it was not human trafficking since the worker knew about his salary before coming here.
And again more talk and no action....i like the way he says workers know about their low salaries before coming here...yeah right you tell a worker in India that he'll get paid 5000 rupees a month and he'll jump with joy...you bring him here and pay him 450 riyals and tell him to pay for clothing, sometimes food, and their own medical and what is he supposed to save to send back home?
Believe me - 'contract changes' just don't happen to people from Asia!
1. Minister of Labour has to enforce their code before other companies can be expected to.
2. there needs to be correct, clear, easy channels to report offenders.
i know but its gonna take a long time before the sponsorship system changes here in Qatar. all we can do is hope for the best :)
Where there is Fire...There is Coke. Where there is Rum..There is Smoke - Sir Smoke-a-Lot
Unfortunately he is also living under an illusion - what is promised and what is given is two different things,