‘Global well being and human progress require sustainable economic development, a fair globalization and multilateral governance that reinforce both economic growth and social justice at the international, national and community levels. This is what we don’t have,’ stated Thabet Ibrahim Al-Haroun, officer-in-charge of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Kuwait Office. Some international organizations continue to slam Kuwait and other Gulf countries over human rights issues related to the large percentage of expatriates living in this part of the world while demanding new regulations that are more labor friendly. The Kuwaiti government has repeatedly denied these allegations and assured that it is doing all that it can to improve the quality of life of foreigners in Kuwait.
Speaking to the Arab Times, Al-Haroun stresses the need to reform the system by firstly reforming and developing the mentality of society itself. He also urges the ‘real’ cancellation of the Kafeel system and putting a new system into practice which contains rules and regulations, objectives and a mission, and which at least can be explained and understood by the public.

Q: What is the mission and objective of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and to what extent are its objectives achieved in Kuwait?
A: The ILO was founded in 1919, in the wake of a destructive war, to pursue a vision based on the premise that universal, lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon decent treatment of working people. The ILO became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946. Kuwait joined the ILO even before joining the United Nations.
Work is central to people’s well-being. In addition to providing income, work can pave the way for broader social and economic advancement, strengthening individuals, their families and communities. Such progress, however, hinges on work that is decent. Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives.
As the world’s only tripartite multilateral agency, the ILO is dedicated to bringing decent work and livelihoods, job-related security and better living standards to the people of both poor and rich countries. It helps to attain those goals by promoting rights at work, encouraging opportunities for decent employment, enhancing social protection and strengthening dialogue on work-related issues.

The ILO is the international meeting place for the world of work. They are experts on work and employment and particularly on the critical role that these issues play in bringing about economic development and progress. At the heart of their mission is helping countries build the institutions that are the bulwarks of democracy and to help them become accountable to the people. All the countries that have signed conventions with the ILO meet once every year to discuss all issues of concern. The countries are held accountable for all their actions that do not meet the demands of the conventions that they have signed. During this meeting each country gets a chance to have their own say on all matters of concern to their country.
The ILO formulates international labor standards in the form of Conventions and Recommendations setting minimum standards of basic labor rights which include freedom of association, the right to organize, collective bargaining, abolition of forced labor, equality of opportunity and treatment and other standards addressing conditions across the entire spectrum of work-related issues.
ILO Conventions and Recommendations cover a broad range of subjects concerning work, employment, social security, social policy and related human rights.

The ILO’s supervisory bodies — the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations and the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards — regularly examine the application of ILS in ILO member states. Representation and complaint procedures can also be initiated against states that fail to comply with conventions they have ratified. A special procedure — the Committee on Freedom of Association — reviews complaints concerning violations of freedom of association, whether or not a member state has ratified the relevant conventions.
The organization’s diverse tasks are grouped under four strategic objectives. These are to promote and realize standards and fundamental principles and rights at work, to create greater opportunities for women and men to secure decent employment and income, to enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all and to strengthen social dialogue.

It is the global body responsible for drawing up and overseeing international labor standards. Working with its member states, the ILO seeks to ensure that labor standards are respected in practice as well as principle.
When I took my position in the ILO, I first took into consideration that I am a Kuwaiti and my objective is to adhere to all the problems that the country is facing in terms of human rights and working conditions and as such try to administer all the needs of all concerning bodies.
After the Iraq-Kuwait war there was a huge problem especially in the mission of reforming the law and educating a society that could mentally absorb a new phase after the war.
Well, that was my mission. Did this happen? Definitely not as we hoped.

After the war we came out with the concept of respecting human rights. I worked very hard in the earlier stages to introduce this issue; however, I faced a lot of problems in this sense.
In Kuwait, there was a conflict and still there remains one, between the continued practice of disrespecting and not complying to the international standards of human rights, and between the path of modernizing the country and keeping it up with the developed world. Unfortunately some groups in Kuwait continue to hinder the possibility of reforming the country to meet international standards. And we can’t take into consideration the fact that these groups have their political, economic and social power that gives them a huge influence to shift the direction that the country is going to meet their personal needs.

We therefore have two choices. Either we commit to international standards and resolutions or that we remain a country that lags behind appropriate development.
At some point the Kuwaiti government is starting to realize the need for Kuwait to be a developed country in terms of signing and complying with the international resolutions of the ILO among other United Nations Organizations, especially that there were many question marks on Kuwait’s human rights standards towards workers.
During the past few weeks we have realized that the government is changing its behavior and it has merged among its five major issues of importance the topic of the situation of laborers in Kuwait. Under this topic the government is discussing the issue of the Kafeel, the labor law, employment sector, the import of laborers from around the world, among other topics.

Q: How would you identify the major problems that laborers in Kuwait face?
A: Global well being and human progress require sustainable economic development, a fair globalization and multilateral governance that reinforce both economic growth and social justice at the international, national and community levels. This is what we don’t have.
Some international organizations continue to slam Kuwait and other Gulf countries over human rights issues related to the large percentage of expatriates living in this part of the world while demanding new regulations that are more labor friendly. The Kuwaiti government has repeatedly denied these allegations and assured that it is doing all that it can to improve the quality of life of foreigners in Kuwait.
The problems exist in Kuwait because the employment market in Kuwait is unorganized. There are not standards or qualifications for the foreign workers that come to Kuwait for employments and this is leading to a chaotic situation in the employment market. There are no laws that regulate the market even for companies and organizations. Also there is no minimum wage to preserve the minimum right for workers; the system also does not provide any kind of insurance whether medical or otherwise.
Therefore what we see here is Kuwait’s incompliance with the minimum standards of human rights all due to the lack of laws that can regulate these different transactions that take place between labor and employer.

Q: What about the new issue concerning canceling the ‘Kafeel’ system that has been proposed by the government and supposedly passed?
A: Kuwait approved a move to modify the sponsorship laws by allowing transfer of residency without the approval of the “sponsor”. The one condition is the person sponsored should spend 3 years with the same sponsor.
This step is considered to be a huge shift in law and it is already not pleasing many sponsors. Many sponsors are already starting a war-of-words against proponents of the new system.
This would eliminate human trafficking in the country and help to respect the rights of both employers and employees. The government’s decision to cancel the sponsorship system is a step to end human trafficking in the country.

The level of awareness of the forced labor problem in the Gulf is low among the general public and many government officials. There is some reluctance to accept that there are abuses which may indeed constitute forced labor and trafficking. After implementing the recent change to the sponsorship law we have witnessed a growing awareness among Kuwaiti sponsors that the ministry is serious with regard to canceling the Kafeel system.
So, there’s more compliance with the labor rights from the side of business owners now than before this decision. In the meantime in order to cancel the Kafeel system, further research needed to be done to predict the possible implications of such steps on the local market.

Although agreeing on the need to thoroughly research substitutes for the current system, I believe it’s not a system to begin with. The Kafeel is a non-system by all means. It’s not implemented anywhere in the world except the GCC. When Kuwait was just developing as a country, it had limited capabilities to organize and to take full responsibility for expatriates; so instead, Kuwait transferred part of its responsibilities, which is sponsoring visitors, to the citizens themselves. It’s clear that the government has enjoyed this situation with less responsibility. Some citizens, in the meanwhile, are taking advantage of the system.
Most people think the ‘Kafeel’ system is obnoxious, antithetical to international laws, and a violation of all aspects of human rights. However canceling the system or amending the law governing it requires a thorough study, so the proposed alternative should have a strong foundation, along with a desirable mechanism, to make it valuable and meaningful. Some countries have been trying to amend the system and they have conducted studies in this regard for a long time, yet they have not implemented the proposed changes until now.

Kuwait is fond of putting attractive titles on such a vital issue, but there will be no traces of its functions at the end of the day, I urged the government to assign specialists to study the proposal and put the final touches for its full implementation. The issue is similar to many other proposals like the housing, education and healthcare projects, which do not have clear plans or serious inclination for success. We should get it right this time, because the issue has dented Kuwait’s image in the international community.
I also stress on the necessity to have an internationally compliant law. We have two goals to achieve from this law: one is outlining a law that is compatible with the internationally recognized standards for laborers, plus we need to concentrate on nationalizing the private sector in the sense that we need to implement regulations that will help national laborers before the expatriates.

We also need to bring a big change into the labor law in favor of the employees by raising minimum wages, increasing annual leaves and end of service indemnities. If this will live up to the expectations of nationalizing the private sector as well as meeting the demands of the private sector; it is certainly something worth waiting for.
In the past we have sponsored a related proposal to the National Assembly, through which we recommended the establishment of shareholding companies in charge of recruiting foreign workers for individuals and companies. The Parliament did not pay attention to the proposal, which would have curbed the visa trade. If shareholding companies would have allowed recruiting skilled and unskilled workers, they would then be responsible for any problems that might ensue between employees and their employers.
Trying to start a new proposal now will take a long time before implementation and it will be an added advantage for visa traders to further exploit innocent workers.
The expatriate workers have suffered so much through the existing ‘kafeel’ system, and it has led to social, economic and security problems. Cancellation of this system and prompt presentation of better alternatives will depict the country as a serious nation and redeem the country’s image worldwide.

Q: What are your future plans considering the rights of foreign workers in Kuwait and how are you going to pursue the implementation of such plans?
A: We will be having a regional conference in Kuwait on Oct 5. This conference will include representatives from all the GCC countries and will take all the human rights problems that are taking place in the Gulf area by eliminating such violations.
However, out major objective is to try and educate ourselves and share ideas on ways to reform the mentality of our societies and to create a better understanding and culture to our people. Before we reform the system we need to be sure that societies can get along well with democratic systems.
We are also going to install training programs for the Kuwaiti youth that educate them on dealing and communicating with employers and employees. Our program will also be introduced in the Ministry of Social Affairs and other ministries of concern.

Biography

Thabet Ibrahim Al-Haroun – Officer-in-charge of International Labor Organization (ILO)-Kuwait.
Education: Studied Law at the University of Damascus.
Experience: Worked in the media for some time and in 1994 became the manager of the ILO in Kuwait. His mission as a manager ended in 2004 and he later became the officer-in-charge of the ILO in Kuwait after which the ILO had its office for the first time.

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