DOHA: The sponsorship system in force in some GCC states did not come up for discussion at a meeting of labour ministers of the six member states and 12 major labour-sending countries of Asia, in Kuwait.
The meeting, however, agreed to implement a recommendation of International Labour Organisation (ILO) to protect foreign workers from exploitation by manpower agencies and middlemen and set up a solid mechanism to monitor agencies and the entire recruitment process.
The meeting agreed that due to the exploitation the basic rights of foreign workers are abused. The countries that attended the meet included Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, the Philippines as well as GCC members Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE, alaan.online said yesterday.
The meeting is significant because it represents the implementation stage of recommendations of the 2008 Abu Dhabi Dialogue (negotiated among GCC states and major manpower exporting countries), said Kuwait’s Minister for Labour and Social Affairs, Hind Al Subaih, Kuwait News Agency reported.
Qatar was represented by the Labour and Social Affairs Minister H E Dr Abdullah Saleh Mubarak Al Khulaifi, and his delegation, QNA reported.
Meanwhile, AFP said the ministers also agreed on initiatives to boost protection and improve conditions of employment for millions of foreign workers in the Gulf.
The deal follows two days of talks between ministers from the 12 Asian labour-exporting countries and the GCC states, which host at least 15 million workers, mostly Asian.
They welcomed a proposal by ILO to assist in “preventing abuse in the recruitment process, protecting workers’ rights, improving regulation and strengthening oversight of private recruitment,” said a final statement at the end of the meeting.
Measures include initiatives and programmes for wage protection, speedier settlement of labour disputes, a skills development and testing programme and a pre-departure orientation initiative, the Emirati Labour Ministry Undersecretary for Policies and Strategy, Omar Al Nuaimi, told AFP.
The governments in the latest round of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue, launched in the Emirati capital in 2008, negotiated “in a positive and responsible way for the benefit of workers,” Al Nuaimi said.
“The issue of expatriate manpower cannot be effectively managed, and their protection and rights cannot be improved without a strong partnership between receiving and sending countries,” he said. The wage protection programme obliges GCC states to transfer salaries of workers to banks to ensure payment and easy monitoring.
A disputes settlement programme is being implemented in Saudi Arabia, where around 10 million foreigners live, to ensure a swift and efficient legal system to help them, Al Nuaimi said.
It will be extended to other GCC states.
Al Subaih, however, said the much-criticised ‘kafala’ sponsorship system was not raised during the meeting. The system restricts most workers from moving to a new job before their contracts end unless their employers agree, trapping many workers.
The Peninsula
