The Kafala System is an oppressive system that controls unskilled migrant workers in the Arab states, most of them being women from Africa and South Asia. The system requires each worker to be sponsored by a citizen of the host country. That employer, also known as a kafeel, is responsible for the worker’s legal status and visa. When the worker’s term finalizes, the employer can either renew it or terminate the worker’s status, which requires that the worker be immediately deported. Under this oppressive system, workers are excluded from Lebanese labor laws regulating minimum wage, maximum working hours, vacation, and overtime.
In essence, the Kafala System creates a power dynamic, enabling employers to have complete control over their employees. The workers are not protected by law against basic labor abuses and they are subject to deportation if they speak out about their conditions. If beaten, raped, or starved, the workers have nowhere to go. In practice, they either risk getting deported if they report their conditions to the police or they are ignored. A worker also cannot move without their employer’s consent: they are often forced to stay at home through financial limitations, emotional abuse, or physical abuse. Additionally, workers have no say in transactions between one employer and another. The employees are treated as objects, expected to do their work with disregard for their personal conditions. They have no safety barriers and, as a result, are subject to multiple human rights abuses.