Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East, ‎pdf 4.1 MB

Ministerial Decree 1186 (2010) was issued with the aim of reorganising the labour
market in the UAE and achieving more flexibility and liberalisation, as well as a
balance in the contractual relationship between the employer and the worker. This
allows a foreign worker who has completed a two-year working period to change
jobs if he or she chooses to. The employer cannot compel such an employee to stay
on. More importantly, the ‘no-objection certificate’ (NOC) rule stands scrapped,
which means workers no longer face a six-month ban. Previously, workers had to
complete at least three years of service with their employers and had to obtain an
NOC letter to change jobs. The new decree is consistent with International Labour
Convention 143 (1975) concerning migrant workers. 260
Both employers and workers interviewed in the region recognized that these
rules governing their relations provide workers in exploitative situations with
very few options to leave their employer. “My job is very good,” explained an
Indian security guard in the UAE, “but I cannot leave before finishing my
contract.” An owner of a garment and clothing factory in Jordan confirmed
that “it is not possible for a worker to transfer from a company to another,
unless the factory shuts down”. 261 Officials from the Kuwait Chamber of
Commerce defended the operation of the kafala system, arguing that “we
invest in workers. There are costs associated with bringing people over and
training them, which are paid by the employer. There must therefore also be a
dividend for the employers.” 262 However, in preventing workers from moving
at will from one employer to another, the kafala system constrains mobility
and thereby prevents the efficient functioning of the labour market.
In the same way as for domestic and sex work, the reliance on the kafala
system in these male-dominated sectors creates an unequal power dynamic.
Egyptian construction workers in Lebanon found that “most of the time,
when you have a sponsor, he controls everything”. Sri Lankan and Indian
workers at a packaging company in Lebanon argued that “the problem is that
you can’t change employer, so if you have a bad one who exploits you, you’ll
have to stay with him as it’s pretty much impossible to leave your employer”.
Egyptian workers in Kuwait also identified as their main problems “the kafala
system and the way Kuwaitis treat foreigners, as if they were superior to us”.
Others working at a soda company in Kuwait took a different view, saying
“the problem is not with the Kuwait society because they are good people,
but with the laws”. The KTUF positioned itself unambiguously on the issue
in 2012 when it submitted a proposal to the Government to abolish the
kafala system.
260
UAE, National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking: Combating human
trafficking in the UAE: Annual Report 2010–2011 (Abu Dhabi, 2011), p. 27.
261
Interview with an owner of a garment factory, Jordan, 17 Nov. 2011.
262
Interview with an official of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce, Kuwait,
29 Mar. 2012.
118