For its latest initiative to abolish its supposed oppressive labor sponsorship system called “kafala,” the government of Saudi Arabia deserves to receive a word of thanks, leaders of the House of Representatives said Saturday.
Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez and Anakalusugan partylist Rep. Michael “Mike” Defensor welcomed the oil rich kingdom’s Labor Relation Initiative which will abolish its kafala.
"We should thank the Saudi Arabian government for easing the contractual restrictions giving employers control over the lives of migrant workers including Filipinos under the kafala system,” Rodriguez said in a Viber message.
"The reforms will now permit our Filipino workers there to change jobs, to travel outside Saudi Arabia, and leave the country to go home without the consent of their employers,” the chairperson of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments cited.
According to him, the kafala system had resulted to more vulnerability to abuse and exploitation of Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia.
Defensor, chairperson of the House Committee on Public Accounts, said Saudi Arabia’s latest initiative will truly benefit some 800,000 Filipino migrant workers in the Kingdom.
“That's great news for our OFWs. The system has been criticized for its oppressive measures against our migrant workers and I hope that the reform will be more worker friendly for our people,” he said in a separate text message.
In a statement issued on Nov. 6, the Department of Foreign Affairs said under Saudi Arabia’s Labor Relation Initiative, foreign workers will have 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.
The DFA noted that the Philippines has been advocating against the kafala system in the United Nations and in other international fora.
It said as of December 2019, an estimated 865,121 Filipino migrant workers are deployed in Saudi Arabia.