By Bernama,
Dubai : A prominent human rights organisation in Saudi Arabia has asked authorities in the country to abolish the much-criticised sponsorship system and replace it with a government commission to look after guest workers, Press Trust of India (PTI) said quoting a local media report Tuesday.
The National Society of Human Rights (NSHR) also accused the Passport Department of delaying cancellation of the sponsorship system for workers — a plan which it said had been approved by the Council of Ministers eight years ago.
“We have presented an 80-page study on the topic to higher authorities,” Bandar Al-Hajjar, the president of NSHR was quoted as saying in Arab News. It took four years for the organization to prepare he study in the light of international experiments, he added.
The NSHR also proposed a mandatory insurance scheme to protect the rights of employers and foreign workers.
Al-Hajjar said the abolition of sponsorship system would solve many problems including disputes between workers and their employers.
“We have received 1,430 cases related to labour disputes and this represents 12 per cent of the total cases we have received so far,” he added.
Under the new system, passports of workers would not be kept by employers; a worker would not need the permission of an employer to bring his family or apply for a Haj permit, or bring his relatives on visit visas, and deal with public organizations or companies or individuals, Al-Hajjar said.
Asked how would sponsors benefit from the new insurance scheme, he said it would protect them from those workers who try to steal or swindle their money or cause damage to their business.