Women migrants in Saudi Arabia must be made aware about amnesty provisions

Saudi Arabia introduced an extension of its ‘Saudization programme’, which seeks to reduce the number of foreign nationals working in the country’s private sector and replace them with Saudi citizens. Aimed primarily at the growing number of illegal migrant workers from South and Southeast Asia, the Nitaqat scheme makes it mandatory for private enterprises to ensure a certain percentage of its workers are local citizens depending on the size of the enterprise while also cracking down and deporting illegal migrant workers. Starting May 10, the government provided illegal migrants with five months and 20 days to either return home without fear of punishment or correct their illegal status. Since then, over 35,000 illegal Nepali migrants have received “outpasses” or exit visas from the Nepali embassy to return home. However, almost all of these migrants have been men; only around 180 women have applied for such outpasses.

While government data accounts for less than 1,000 legal female migrants in Saudi Arabia, unofficial records estimate that over 60,000 female Nepali migrants are working as housemaids there. Given this fact, it is worrying that such a small number of women have applied to leave the country. According to experts, one reason for the small number of illegal women migrants seeking to return home could be Saudi Arabia’s archaic ‘kafala’ (sponsorship) system, which accords employers with an inordinate amount of power over workers. Migrant workers require employers’ permission to change workplaces or even leave the country. This practice is especially restrictive on live-in domestic workers as it provides an easy opportunity for employers to take away workers’ travel documents and refuse to allow them to even leave the compound, as has been reported often by migrants who have managed to escape. Under such stifling conditions, most domestic workers, legal or illegal, might not even be aware of the Saudi government’s amnesty plan. Or worse, they might be restricted from pursuing such avenues of escape by unscrupulous employers.

The Nepali Embassy in Saudi Arabia, in coordination with the Saudi government, must take active measures, targeted especially at women and domestic workers, to disseminate information about the amnesty provisions for illegal migrants. Furthermore, efforts must also be made to seek out families here in Nepal who have family members working in Saudi Arabia and can relay the information to them. Nepal government agencies will also need to work on obtaining data from Saudi immigration concerning the nature and number of Nepali migrants there, which it has failed to do as of yet. In the long term, the Nepal government would do well to consider lifting the ban on women migrating to the Gulf as it only curtails women’s freedom of movement and pushes them to pursue dangerous, illegal routes. The government has also been mulling over entering into a binding Labour Agreement with labour receiving countries that is focussed on female migrants. This agreement will need to be enacted as soon as possible to ensure some protection for women migrants in foreign lands.

Published on: 6 August 2013 | The Kathmandu Post