And yet, this literal modern slavery barely comes up in the news
julioqc on
eeuh sounds awfully like Canada migrant worker program
RaptorArk on
Ahhh yes the “religion of peace”
AlSanaPost on
I’m sure it’s the lax workers rights in those nations that result in modern day slavery. This “sponsorship” system is implemented in nearly all countries, obviously including the U.S, where we don’t see those workers being exploited anywhere near what’s happening in say the UAE.
Edit: Turns out they give up their passports to the companies in order to participate in this system. The governments (gulf states) obviously do NOT allow that to happen de jure (up to 3 years per passport in UAE), but some of them majorly turn a blind eye to the issue and probably hand out smaller sentences when found out.
underivan on
Does this extend to Cristiano Ronaldo?
GenLodA on
Props to Yemen for not implementing the kafala system 💪
jake_ytcrap on
I know about house maids going to middlea east from Sri Lanka. Their passports are taken from them by the house owner or the agency that recruited them. Then they are forced to work from as early as 4 AM till midnight daily without breaks, doing child care, cleaning, cooking, washing etc. Some gets beaten, hot boiling water thrown over them, sexually assaulted, nails/pins driven undee their skin by the employers.
The only thing they can do is escape and run away to the Sri Lankan embassy, where they have to spend sometimes months at the embassy safe houses in harsh conditions. And they are sent back home without any money.
I have seen numerous cases like this over the years. Things seems to have improved more as the employment agencies are better regulated now. But it still happens .
ghghgfdfgh on
It is the worst in the UAE, then Qatar, then Saudi Arabia, then all the other countries.
Delicious-Prompt-285 on
Wait what? No Jews no news!
AdorableTarget8529 on
There is this indian movie called “Aadujeevitham”/”The goat life”, which released last year based on the real life tragedy of a man from Kerala, Najeeb Muhammed, who was trapped and forced to work in Saudi desert for over 3 and half years as a slave and luckily escaped from there. The movie earned well, especially in the native state of the the person. The movie was banned in most of the gcc countries except for UAE. Then again, the movie was removed from Netflix due to negative reviews and backlashes from the same countries. You can check the imdb to see how much Saudi users have bombarded the film with one stars.
dopaminedata on
Kafala System is basically modern day slavery and it disgusts me that these countries employ such barbarian outdated tactics. Shame on them all honestly
Overall_Management14 on
Okay this might be unpopular but worth an honest discussion. For context, I’m from South East Asia
Kafala system are practiced in SE Asia primarily Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand (semi formal sponsorship).
* Work Permit holders are **tied to one employer**
* Changing jobs requires government approval
* Employers control **housing, healthcare access, and repatriation**
* Domestic workers live in employers’ homes
* Employers often **hold passports** (illegal but common)
So the question is how is it different from the Gulf? I can show you a photo of a worker’s dorm in Malaysia and tells you this is in Dubai, you would easily believe me.
From my understanding, part of the blame also comes from their fellow agent back home in Bangladesh, India and Indonesia. They borrow a large sum of money as recruitment fee for them to find work abroad. Their passport got held by their employer/agents because most of them would default their loans and run away. This is indentured servitude or some might say slavery. Honestly. slavery is a strong word here.
I’ve met actual slave in real life. They are the deckhands of Chinese or Thai fishing trawlers that landed in one of our ports in SE Asia. They got beaten up, never go back home in 1-2 years and never got paid. Furthermore, actual slavery is happening in Thai, Burma and Cambodian borders fueled by Chinese scam rings (cyber slavery).
My point is, throwing the word SLAVERY around like that will lost it’s true meaning. Indentured servitude is way different than actual slavery that people often overlooked. Give your attention to SE Asia because it matters more. Migrants working in the Gulf still can send remittance to their family and making a living, but the slaves in SE Asia are being chained and beaten daily without pay.
srmndeep on
Is this different from L1 visa in USA where we cannot change our employer ?
DiscoShaman on
The uncomfortable truth: most victims of this modern-day slavery in the GCC are South Asians. It’s gruesome and condemnable. On the flip side, wherever South Asians gather in large numbers, trouble follows. The reason? South Asians come from countries where following the law is optional and exploiting systems is rewarded. While the kafala system is bad and should be done away with, it is unfortunate that if South Asian labour is brought to GCC countries in an open way, it will lead to chaos.
shumpitostick on
Isn’t that pretty much the same as most temporary work visas?
aziad1998 on
The work laws in each of those countries are too different to be lumped under one category. Kafala just means sponsorship, it has no inherent standard legal meaning across regions, it is even used for all sorts of sponsorships.
alwxcanhk on
– Hong Kong/Singapore/Japan – For domestic helpers. Same or worse. They can’t even leave home!
18 Comments
Saudi is abolishing this system.
And yet, this literal modern slavery barely comes up in the news
eeuh sounds awfully like Canada migrant worker program
Ahhh yes the “religion of peace”
I’m sure it’s the lax workers rights in those nations that result in modern day slavery. This “sponsorship” system is implemented in nearly all countries, obviously including the U.S, where we don’t see those workers being exploited anywhere near what’s happening in say the UAE.
Edit: Turns out they give up their passports to the companies in order to participate in this system. The governments (gulf states) obviously do NOT allow that to happen de jure (up to 3 years per passport in UAE), but some of them majorly turn a blind eye to the issue and probably hand out smaller sentences when found out.
Does this extend to Cristiano Ronaldo?
Props to Yemen for not implementing the kafala system 💪
I know about house maids going to middlea east from Sri Lanka. Their passports are taken from them by the house owner or the agency that recruited them. Then they are forced to work from as early as 4 AM till midnight daily without breaks, doing child care, cleaning, cooking, washing etc. Some gets beaten, hot boiling water thrown over them, sexually assaulted, nails/pins driven undee their skin by the employers.
The only thing they can do is escape and run away to the Sri Lankan embassy, where they have to spend sometimes months at the embassy safe houses in harsh conditions. And they are sent back home without any money.
I have seen numerous cases like this over the years. Things seems to have improved more as the employment agencies are better regulated now. But it still happens .
It is the worst in the UAE, then Qatar, then Saudi Arabia, then all the other countries.
Wait what? No Jews no news!
There is this indian movie called “Aadujeevitham”/”The goat life”, which released last year based on the real life tragedy of a man from Kerala, Najeeb Muhammed, who was trapped and forced to work in Saudi desert for over 3 and half years as a slave and luckily escaped from there. The movie earned well, especially in the native state of the the person. The movie was banned in most of the gcc countries except for UAE. Then again, the movie was removed from Netflix due to negative reviews and backlashes from the same countries. You can check the imdb to see how much Saudi users have bombarded the film with one stars.
Kafala System is basically modern day slavery and it disgusts me that these countries employ such barbarian outdated tactics. Shame on them all honestly
Okay this might be unpopular but worth an honest discussion. For context, I’m from South East Asia
Kafala system are practiced in SE Asia primarily Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand (semi formal sponsorship).
* Work Permit holders are **tied to one employer**
* Changing jobs requires government approval
* Employers control **housing, healthcare access, and repatriation**
* Domestic workers live in employers’ homes
* Employers often **hold passports** (illegal but common)
So the question is how is it different from the Gulf? I can show you a photo of a worker’s dorm in Malaysia and tells you this is in Dubai, you would easily believe me.
From my understanding, part of the blame also comes from their fellow agent back home in Bangladesh, India and Indonesia. They borrow a large sum of money as recruitment fee for them to find work abroad. Their passport got held by their employer/agents because most of them would default their loans and run away. This is indentured servitude or some might say slavery. Honestly. slavery is a strong word here.
I’ve met actual slave in real life. They are the deckhands of Chinese or Thai fishing trawlers that landed in one of our ports in SE Asia. They got beaten up, never go back home in 1-2 years and never got paid. Furthermore, actual slavery is happening in Thai, Burma and Cambodian borders fueled by Chinese scam rings (cyber slavery).
Read this:
[Indian man got his passport held in Malaysia (a months ago)](https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2025/11/29/living-the-nightmare-homeless-man-outside-bank-tells-his-story)
[Tricked into slavery in the Thai fishing industry](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/21/such-brutality-tricked-into-slavery-in-the-thai-fishing-industry)
[China sentences 11 members of mafia family to death](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78nrx309kzo)
[Qatar abolishes its kafala system, when will Singapore do so?](https://twc2.org.sg/2020/10/16/qatar-abolishes-its-kafala-system-when-will-singapore-do-so/)
My point is, throwing the word SLAVERY around like that will lost it’s true meaning. Indentured servitude is way different than actual slavery that people often overlooked. Give your attention to SE Asia because it matters more. Migrants working in the Gulf still can send remittance to their family and making a living, but the slaves in SE Asia are being chained and beaten daily without pay.
Is this different from L1 visa in USA where we cannot change our employer ?
The uncomfortable truth: most victims of this modern-day slavery in the GCC are South Asians. It’s gruesome and condemnable. On the flip side, wherever South Asians gather in large numbers, trouble follows. The reason? South Asians come from countries where following the law is optional and exploiting systems is rewarded. While the kafala system is bad and should be done away with, it is unfortunate that if South Asian labour is brought to GCC countries in an open way, it will lead to chaos.
Isn’t that pretty much the same as most temporary work visas?
The work laws in each of those countries are too different to be lumped under one category. Kafala just means sponsorship, it has no inherent standard legal meaning across regions, it is even used for all sorts of sponsorships.
– Hong Kong/Singapore/Japan – For domestic helpers. Same or worse. They can’t even leave home!