Qatar abolishes “Kafala”; when Lebanon?

At the time when the two MWDW trade unionists, Sujana and Rosie, were arrested in Lebanon with one of them being subjected to deportation, and as both were involved in documenting rights violation due to the Sponsorship system, the Qatari Minister of Labor announced yesterday that his country has abolished the infamous Sponsorship system with the decision taking effect immediately.  According to the Qatari minister, the Sponsorship system will be replaced as it resulted in the violation of the rights of migrant workers and in increasing their vulnerability to abuse.  The new system to be adopted will be based on a work contract.  However, the employee will still need the approval of the employer before leaving the country.  Amnesty International criticized this new system saying that although the word “Sponsorship” was dropped, the fundamentals of the old system are still in force and the employees remain at the mercy of abusive employers.  Within the same vein, the Ministry of Administrative Development and Social Affairs in Qatar announced that it has helped some 10000 migrant workers victims of abuses and all were repatriated in 2015.  This announcement was made on the day when the Sponsorship system was abolished. (L’Orient le Jour, Daily Star, An-Nahar 13  December 2016)