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Riyadh: A study, conducted by Saudi Arabia's human rights panel, has recommended scrapping the much-debated sponsorship system.
In the report presented to King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and the Ministries of Interior and Labour, the National Human Rights Society (NHRS) has sought to redefine the relationship between foreign workers and Saudi employers, which is "not reasonable".
Addressing a press conference at the headquarters of the society here, Dr Bandar Al Hajjar, president of the society, unveiled major features of the elaborate study carried out by the society.
The study took four years to complete. He said that the society received 12,369 complaints from employees between 2004 and 2007.
In the study, the society called for banning employers from keeping the passports of the foreign workers. "It also called for cancelling the regulation in the current sponsorship system that employees shall get permission of their employers to bring their families, perform Haj pilgrimage, marry, or visit their relatives living in other regions of the kingdom," Dr Al Hajjar said.
Individual sponsors
The society is not in favour of the reported move by the Ministry of Labour to work out an alternate sponsorship system through establishing independent companies and establishments in place of individual sponsors.
"In such case, the existing problems will move from individual sponsors to the companies," Dr Al Hajjar said.
Dr Al Hajjar said the study demanded establishing a government body, supervised by the Ministry of Labour, to take charge of the whole affairs of foreign employees in the kingdom.
The body, which can be called 'The Authority for the Affairs of Foreign Workers', shall be an independent entity with executive powers. It suggested that the body could be based in Riyadh and branch offices in major cities.
He said that the study is a serious attempt to address the problems faced by foreign workers in the kingdom in a positive, transparent and direct manner.
"The study was based on two pivotal aspects. One is concerning the relations between the employer and employee, which is not in a right and natural framework and so this must be rectified.
"The second is that current sponsorship system must be scrapped," he said, adding that the society is keen in the cases of both the rights and duties of some eight million workers belonging to about 100 countries.
Dr Al Hajjar said that some of the provisions in the current sponsorship system are contrary to the principles of Sharia as well as that of the international human rights conventions and charters.
He also pointed out to the efforts made by the Gulf Cooperation Council states, including Saudi Arabia, to scrap the sponsorship system.
"The highest Saudi authorities had taken a decision to constitute a ministerial panel to review the sponsorship system as early as 1999. However, ... the decision is yet to be implemented," he said.
The NHRS study includes guidelines to prevent sponsors from exercising pressures to exploit foreign workers to do other jobs than the one for which they have been originally hired for.
The study also recommends making it mandatory for employers to compensate their workers for any extra hours they work in addition to what is stated in their contracts.
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