Sponsorship system for expatriates to end in Kuwait: Govt

Kuwait, where Indians are the largest expatriate community, is set to scrap the much-criticised sponsorship system for foreign workers and replace it with a new one, a senior government official has said.
Kuwait's foreign worker sponsorship system mandates that expatriates must be sponsored by a local employer to get a work permit, thus keeping them at their mercy.
The Indian community of around 681,288 nationals are the largest expatriate community in Kuwait, according to figures by Indian Embassy.
According to Undersecretary of Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, Jamal Al-Dosari, the logistics of the new project -- Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) -- are yet not clear at the moment but it is said that it will replace the current sponsor system.

"PAM will have a board of directors who will meet soon and set the procedure to organise relations between employers and employees," Kuwait Times quoted Al-Dosari as saying.
"The word "kafeel" does not exist in the Kuwaiti labor law. There is employer and employee, and "kafeel" is an unofficial term," Al-Dosari said.

"There have been gradual steps over the past few years to change the present kafeel system and PAM was founded to replace it," he said, adding, that an employee is now able to transfer his residency without the approval of the employer after three years of working with him.

According to Al-Dosari, recruitment offices currently responsible for hiring maids from abroad will no longer deal with the process and that PAM will work with a private company to hire maids from abroad.
"This period is shorter if both parties agree. The employee can now leave the present employer and transfer to another employer after one year only if the employer agrees.
"It's not reasonable for the time frame to be shorter as the employee has to work for at least a year to not harm the employer's interests on the other hand," Al-Dosari said.