The Gulf's employment crisis. Part Two: The iniquities of kafala:
"THE KAFALA ("sponsorship") system lies at the heart of employment policies in the Arab Gulf states. Introduced in the 1950s, it was intended to speed economic development by providing a plentiful but easily dispensable supply of foreign labour without the complicating factor of permanent immigration. Citizenship, and the privileges that come with it, would not be extended to foreigners since they would eventually leave and the traditions and values of Gulf society would remain intact. That, at least, was the theory.
What this meant in practice was that workers seeking to enter the country would require a sponsor – either an individual citizen or a locally-based company – and the sponsor would assume legal and financial responsibility for them for the duration of their employment contract. When the contract expired (typically after a couple of years) it was also the sponsor's duty to ensure that the worker left the country, even to the extent of paying the fare to return home."
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