Why Gulf dream turns into nightmare for job seekers
By PD columnist, October 28, 2022I happen to be a frequent user of JKIA departure doors and hardly do I exit before I see a group of young women wearing some branded T-shirts mostly on top of their clothes. The T-shirts bear some communication written in a language that I am illiterate in. The women move in groups carrying small bags faithfully behind a lead with a bunch of passports in her hand.
As they walk past, the rest of passengers escort them with stares. My head spins around the horror stories concerning domestic workers in the Gulf. The mother in me is tempted to stop them in their tracks but decorum glues me to my seat. I pray for the universe’s benevolence upon them on landing.
The million dollar question I have always wanted to ask the T-shirt clad maidens in JKIA departure lounge is: “Do you know where you are going?
Before I hear Saudia, Lebanon, etc allow me to explain to these travelers and their future colleagues what I mean.
A lot has been said about the physical, psychological and emotional torture and even death that very many of female domestic workers go through in the Gulf countries. The litany of reasons why women seek greener pastures has also been sung. I will not dwell on that. I am also well aware that there are many success stories from the same countries. I will not dwell on this either. I choose a different path – educative.
The fact is that the immigrant domestic worker hiring process in the Gulf is misunderstood or ignored. Outsourcing immigrant domestic labour in the Gulf countries is a legal process. This employment process is called The Kafala System. Under this system that dates back to 1950s, the local persons are permitted to sponsor travel and accommodation needs of a foreign worker. The sponsors opt to use recruitment agencies in the source countries and facilitate travel to the Gulf countries.
The Kafala System operates within the law of the host countries where such workers are not eligible for labour laws protection. This explains why aggrieved domestic workers are frustrated when they try to seek justice. Household chores are the domain of women and as such immigrant domestic workers are hired at a private capacity as live in helpers of the women in the hosting home. This private arrangement is treated as such and thus not interfered with by the State and other social structures which makes it difficult to regulate the living and working conditions. The domestic worker remains at the mercy of the sponsor. It is obvious then that a domestic worker does not have chances of joining a labour union. The system endows the sponsor with control over the legal status of the worker.
According to Regulatory Framework Governing Migrant Workers 2019 November fact sheet by International Labour Organisation, it is not explicitly prohibited to confiscate a domestic worker’s passport. In case of a dispute between the sponsor who doubles up as the employer, a written employment contract, in Arabic, is considered the official version. Annual leave of 30 days is given every two years. A person can change a sponsor before two years if the employer permits alternatively she has to serve for two years.
Deserting the sponsor’s home results in termination of legal status thus facing imprisonment and or deportation. This essentially means that a domestic worker has to serve the contract period to enable the sponsor recoup the sponsorship short of which she faces the wrath of the sponsor. The Kafala System does not apply to Kenyan workers only but to other nationalities.
Kenyan embassies in these countries have been bashed for not doing enough. To be fair to the staff, it cannot be easy with such intricate procedures that are private. Their huge volume of work away from the media remains unseen and only bear the blame when a there is a crisis.
Without exonerating the inhumane sponsors or employers, I urge the young ladies to search “The Kafala System” before picking that call from the smooth talking agent who is essentially in business. Drum up awareness to stop the stream right here in Kenya. It is unfortunately unlikely that these countries will change their way of hiring and managing low cost domestic labour. Seemingly easy to find immigrant jobs have cost lives. Embrace local solutions – Hustler Fund jets in in December 2022.
Over to you CSs Alfred Mutua (Foreign and Diaspora Affairs) and Florence Bore (Labour).
—The writer is a Mental Health Consultant