The problem is rooted in the “kafala” sponsorship system, described by critics as a modern form of slavery that binds workers to their Saudi employers, whose permission is required to enter and exit the kingdom as well as to change jobs.
“The Saudi government should offer an amnesty for irregular migrants to regularize their status or return to their home countries,” Annas Shaker, a research fellow at the advocacy group Migrant Rights, told AFP.Holding back such workers, many of whom are forced to go into hiding, risks fanning the pandemic, observers including Shaker warned.
Hatem, who scrapes by thanks to the kindness of strangers, has implored Sudan’s embassy in Riyadh to push authorities to grant him the exit visa he needs to leave.A South Asian official told AFP he had received similar pleas for exit visas from debt-saddled subcontinent workers stuck in the same predicament, many for years.
One of the Egyptians, a 36-year-old father-of-two, said he could not take the risk after he took on a huge loan to work in the kingdom as a private driver.Kafala persists even after Saudi media reported in February that the government would “soon” abolish the system.
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