Unified work contracts preserve Kafala 

Al Akhbar highlighted on Saturday the new unified work contract for migrant men and women domestic workers in the works by the labor ministry. The latter, the newspaper wrote, has decided to adjust the kafala system (sponsorship) rather than abolish altogether a system which enslaves thousands of workers. On the subject, FENASOL president, Castro Abdallah, described to Al Akhbar the ministry’s accomplishment as an “incomplete move” or a “failed attempt” on its part giving two main reasons for that. The first, is that instead of redrafting the contract, the ministry should have amended the labor law, specifically Article 7, which excludes domestic workers as a profession like any other. Secondly, the contract itself is obviously “unfinished” in the absence of the primary party, workers, or representatives of them, from the meetings to this end. Over and above, the contract exposes weaknesses in terms of the mechanisms aimed to ensure the proper implementation of its provisions, expounded Abdallah. Likewise, Farah Salka of the Anti-Racism Movement, said there is no need for roundtable discussions or a unified contract to reframe kafala system which should be totally annulled. Nothing, she maintained, can be reformed in a system that enslaves the worker. The representative of KAFA organization, lawyer Mohana Isaac, for her part, noted that changing the work contract is not a solution to the dilemma. It is like putting a good face on a bad situation if not accompanied by other steps. These include, beside the amendment of the labor code, the development of clear mechanisms to monitor and put in practice provisos stipulated in the contract. (More info in the link below: https://bit.ly/3eN6nlu). (Al Akhbar, June 27, 2020)