Policy Brief No. 2 (2012) | Reform of the Kafala (Sponsorship) System
— July 12, 2012Policy Brief No. 2 (2012)
Reform of the Kafala (Sponsorship) System
The Kafala (Sponsorship) System emerged in the 1950’s to regulate the relationship between employers and migrant workers in many countries in West Asia. It remains the routine practice in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and also in the Arab states of Jordan and Lebanon. The sponsorship system’s economic objective was to provide temporary, rotating labour that could be rapidly brought into the country in economic boom and expelled during less affluent periods.