CORRUPTION

International Affairs Forum Fall 2016
Qatari forms, contravenes the stipulations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Article 13, for example, enshrines the right of movement. It states that, “Everyone has the right to
freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state”, and “Everyone has the right
to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” These rights are also found in
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), of which Bahrain and Kuwait are
the only signatories in the GCC. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants has
stated that the exit visa is a source of abuse and that “there is no valid justification for maintaining this
system.”
As a result of the pervasive kafala system, unscrupulous recruitment practices, and weak
enforcement of insufficient labor laws, the GCC governments are effectively maintaining a statesanctioned
trafficking network—one that forces its victims to endure conditions which amount to
forced labor. The abuse that migrant workers suffer under the kafala system begins in the source
country during the recruitment process. Although many GCC countries prohibit workers paying their
own recruitment fees, this ban is poorly enforced, and laborers often feel compelled to take out large
loans in order to pay the exorbitant fees. Being indebted upon arrival forces migrant workers to accept
lower wages from their employer, as they cannot afford to pay additional recruitment fees for a new
placement or to return home. Taking further advantage of migrant workers, employers often practice
contract substitution. This means that the nature of the laborers’ work, as well as their promised
salaries as stipulated in the original contracts signed during recruitment, often changes upon arrival to
the Gulf.
Gulf countries try to mitigate recruitment abuse by signing agreements with source countries. For
example, GCC member states and source countries with large numbers of emigrants often enter
into Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). India recently signed MoUs with Bahrain and the UAE
in the hope of mitigating human trafficking and implementing best practices for migration. Saudi
Arabia has struck similar agreements with Cambodia and Somalia. Still, while such agreements may
represent an attempt to address the problem of human trafficking, none of them are legally binding.
These MoUs are purely aspirational. None of the GCC states have drafted or passed legislation to
reinforce the content of these agreements.
Initial rights violations such as contract substitution and passport revocation do not constitute the
only abuses faced by migrant workers during their time in the Gulf. Employers exercise extensive
oversight of their workers, and the lives of migrant laborers are highly regimented as a result. Workers
generally receive accommodations, but many of these facilities are overcrowded and unsanitary.
Companies also arrange for transportation to and from the worksites and the migrant workers’
accommodations. While they work, migrant laborers are often subjected to physical abuse at the
hands of their employers. Most are expected to do harsh physical labor with few—if any—breaks for
long hours in extreme weather conditions.
As the mistreatment of migrant day laborers continues, the GCC states have also taken little action to
protect migrant domestic workers. Domestic workers remain entirely excluded from the labor laws of
Oman, Qatar, and the UAE, and receive minimal protection in the labor laws of Bahrain, Kuwait, and
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