Dubai: Saudi Arabia on Wednesday announced reforms that will abolish some key restrictions tying millions of low-paid and vulnerable migrant workers to their employers in conditions that have been rife with abuse and exploitation.
The Ministry of Human Resource and Social Development said the reforms will allow foreign workers the right to change jobs by transferring their sponsorship from one employer to another, leave and re-enter the country and secure final exit visas without the consent of their employer, which had long been required.
Deputy Minister Abdullah bin Nasser Abuthnain said the new so-called Labour Relation Initiative is slated to come into effect in March 2021, affecting potentially around a third of Saudi Arabia's total population, or approximately 10 million foreign workers in the kingdom.
Human Rights Watch researcher Rothna Begum said the information provided thus far shows Saudi authorities are removing some elements of the kafala" sponsorship system in place across multiple Gulf Arab states that tie foreign workers' legal status to their employer.
Qatar, which is preparing to host the next FIFA World Cup in 2022, has recently introduced similar changes to its labor laws.
Begum described the three changes to the Saudi law as significant steps that could improve migrant workers' conditions but cautioned it does not appear to be a full abolition of the kafala system.
Migrant workers still need an employer to sponsor them to come to the country and employers may still have control over their residency status, said Begum, whose work focuses on migrant rights, domestic workers, and women's rights in the Middle East.
Under Saudi Arabia's restrictive kafala system, workers had little power to escape abuse because their employers controlled their exit from the country and their ability to change jobs.
Begum recently wrote about how many employers exploited this control by taking workers' passports, forcing them to work excessive hours, and denying them wages. This has led to hundreds of thousands of workers fleeing their employers and becoming undocumented.
The reforms are part of a broader plan known as Vision 2030 spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to make the kingdom more attractive to foreign investors, expand the private sector and diversify the kingdom's oil-dependent economy.
Ali Mohamed, a researcher at Migrant Rights, said the kafala system will persist as long as both work and residence visas are tied to an individual, known as a kafeel or sponsor.
He also noted that widely-criticized conditions for migrants in Saudi detention centers exist regardless of the kafala system, although any move towards de-linking migrant workers from the control of a single sponsor will certainly benefit migrant workers and is to be welcomed.
May Romanos, a researcher on migrant rights in the Gulf with Amnesty International, said the devil is usually in the details and that until Saudi Arabia publishes the new reforms and fully enforces them it is very difficult to assess the impact these promises will have on the rights of migrant workers in the country.
It remains to be seen whether these latest changes to the labor law will apply to all migrant workers, including domestic workers like maids and nannies, Begum said.
Additionally, the information released does not specify whether employers can report workers for absconding. Begum said if an employer reports a worker for absconding or is able to cancel a worker's visa before that person can request a transfer of employment, they can become undocumented in the country and then liable to arrest and deportation.
This is why a full abolition (of kafala) is necessary. Partial reforms like removing the need for employer consent to change employers and leave the country are significant, but workers can become trapped in other ways when such elements remain, Begum said.
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Kolkata (PTI): At a time when the Election Commission pledges to leave no stone unturned to bring eligible voters to polling stations to exercise their franchise, not many electors are aware of their right to "refuse to vote" even after registering their identities before the presiding officer.
That right, which is separate from the provision to vote under NOTA, can be exercised under the 'Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 Rule 49-O', which elaborates the little-known option for electors to abstain from voting even after reaching the polling booth.
While the NOTA (None Of The Above) option allows voters to express their lack of confidence in any of the candidates seeking mandate, the refusal to vote' option allows an elector to shun the poll process in its entirety.
The 49-O clause directs the presiding officer that once an elector refuses to vote inside a booth after having his credentials verified, the officer shall put "a remark to this effect against the entry in Form 17A and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such a remark".
"This is not a new introduction of rights. It has existed for some time. The electors, though, have very little idea about it. Most people are unaware of this option," a senior official of the EC told PTI.
The abstention from voting would, of course, play no role in affecting poll outcome and the candidate who secures the highest number of valid votes polled, irrespective of his winning margin, would be declared elected, he clarified.
On whether the EC would raise the awareness of the electors in this regard, the official said, "There is no such plan at the moment."
Underlining the advantage of rule 49-O, he stated that the rule "provided an option to reject all candidates while simultaneously keeping a check on bogus voting".
Statistics from the EC state that in the 2019 edition of general elections, 1,389 votes were rejected due to other reasons (at polling station)' across India.
It could not be ascertained, though, whether all or a fraction of these votes were rejected for people exercising their rights under rule 49-O.
The rule states that "if an elector, subsequent to his electoral roll number duly entered in the Register of Voters' Form 17A as well as his signature/ thumb impression duly taken, decides not to vote, he shall not be forced to cast his vote".
"In the Form, in place of 'Under Rule', left without voting or 'Refused to Vote' will be inserted for those electors who after signing in Register of Voters' wish to leave without voting," it says.
In the event of the "allot" button on the EVM's 'Control Unit', which readies the ballot unit for "recording a vote", getting activated when an elector refuses to vote, the presiding officer or the third polling officer should direct the next voter to proceed to the voting compartment to record his/her vote, the poll panel official pointed out.
However, if the "allot" button has been pressed to "release voting" on the ballot unit when the elector refuses to vote, the presiding officer would then have to reboot the control unit by killing its power and disconnect the VVPAT, before enabling the machine to accept the next vote, he said.
"The power needs to be switched on after the busy' indicator goes off and the close' button becomes functional to close the poll," he explained.