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Coming down heavily on Gulf countries for treating foreign laborers, as guests and not migrants, the International Labour Organization ILO has urged the Gulf countries to reform their sponsor-system.
According to the ILO estimates, there are some 15 million migrant workers in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council GCC states that make up about 40 percent of the total population for GCC countries, including Bahrain; Qatar; Oman; UAE; Saudi Arabia; and Kuwait.
ILO has also urged the Gulf countries to protect millions of their migrant laborers from exploitation and inhumane treatment meted to them allegedly by their employers who are shielded by laws, like Kafala or sponsor system. For some time now human rights groups from around the world have been voicing their dissent against Kafala – terming it as modern day slavery.
In an unexpected move, ILO has called for respective GCC governments to allow foreign workers to form representative organizations through which they can voice their problems against the violation of rights.
The recommendations were based on two survey reports on migrant workers from Kuwait and United Arab Emirates that was released at the end of a one-day symposium conducted by ILO. The reports suggested the introduction of a fair minimum wage system for Kuwait at the rate of 60 dinars monthly USD 215, so that a migrant worker is not cheated or exploited.
In April 2010, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, termed the system which requires migrant workers to secure local sponsors for working in the country, as one that ‘promotes abuses.’
In Kuwait, workers who leave their jobs against the wish of their sponsor are libel to criminal charges, as per the immigration regulations; one cannot leave the country without the permission of his sponsor.
ILO argued that the system itself promotes exploitation and makes foreign migrant laborers vulnerable to abuses.

