THE Kingdom’s sponsorship system has become a major headache for all parties involved, including the sponsor, the employee, the Labor Ministry, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) and the courts.
The process of sponsoring foreigners to work in the Kingdom is something that came into existence with the country’s economic development, which picked up momentum in the 1970s when the need for large-scale recruitment foreign workers arose.
Sponsors, who can be male or female, are responsible for the workers that they bring into the Kingdom, and have to provide their employees with salaries, housing, exit-entry visas and other things.
The current system is facing many difficulties and much criticism. There is an urgent need to introduce an alternative system that will rectify the negative aspects of the current system. The present system cannot adapt to the new changes that have been taking place all over the world.
A local newspaper recently published reports of a disagreement between the NSHR and the Labor Ministry over the introduction of an alternative to the current sponsorship system. Both have their own alternative models that they want to introduce.
The Labor Ministry is of the view that it is important to establish — instead of individual sponsors — independent institutions and companies to sponsor workers. The NSHR believes that the government should sponsor workers.
I do not know why the two agencies want to deal with this issue in this manner. Why do they want to create a new system when there are already other regional and international successful models that can be introduced in the Kingdom?
We can benefit from these systems by applying them in a way that protects both employers and foreign workers.
Despite the disagreement between the Labor Ministry and the NSHR, it is promising to see that they are discussing this issue. There is an urgent need to change this system, which is causing problems to a lot of people.
Countries around the globe have development projects that require foreign manpower and they too bring in foreign workers without having the kind of problems that we have in the Kingdom. There is an urgent need for a major restructuring of our current setup for recruiting foreigners. Maybe one day we will say goodbye to the sponsorship system.
