Legal Support

AMNESTY TO UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANT WORKERS, SAUDI ARABIA

Amnesty is an official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offenses (Oxford Dictionary). When amnesty is granted, a group of people are told that they will not be prosecuted for a particular offense if they comply with terms of the amnesty. No criminal record of the violations will be made. The result is that the people are deemed free by the governing authority.

The government of Saudi Arabia has announced amnesty to undocumented migrant (workers) on 19th March 2017, under 'Nation without Violations Campaign' a campaign that gives a 90 days opportunity to leave the country without any fines or penalties linked to violating the Saudi Residency law, Labor system and boarder security in the kingdom. This serves to minimize the number of undocumented migrant (workers) in Saudi Arabia. This campaign is a continuity of the Saudi government efforts to regulate its labour sector from 2013 by bringing undocumented workers under the purview of law. Undocumented migrants are threat to any nation because the possibility of negatively affecting the society is high. Saudi government claims that the increase in undocumented migrants in Saudi Arabia has increased the numbers of crime and drug rates in recent years.

Undocumented Migrant Workers

Under Kafala system, any migrant worker without Iqama (identy card), with a work permit but no Iquma, residents with expired Iquma, runaway workers are consider as undocumented migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Any migrant worker who joins work in Saudi Arabia is tie to two years of contract agreement under Kafala system which restricts the right to mobility, freedom to work and other several rights of migrant workers. Many migrant rights activists claim that the restrictive employment system of Saudi Arabia for migrant workers is one of the major causes behind the increase in number of undocumented migrant worker in Saudi Arabia.

How Workers Get Undocumented

Many companies employ the migrant workers without providing Iquma to them or do not renew the Iquama after it get expired which result the migrant worker being undocumented. In many cases, migrant workers prefer to run away from the Sponsor due to several reasons such as non-payment of salary, excessive work, misbehavior of Sponsor, breach of contract by the sponsor, to join another well paid opportunity and other. In cases like company shut down, company going bankrupt, companies operating illegally and other - the possibility of migrant workers getting stranded and undocumented seems high.

Amnesty Announcement by Saudi Arabia

In 2013 Saudi government announced Amnesty to undocumented migrant workers, around 35,000 undocumented Nepalese migrant workers benefited from the program as per Nepal Embassy, Saudi Arabia, whereas the number of undocumented Nepalese migrant workers is anticipated to be around 60,000 in 2013. In total, 2.5 million undocumented migrant (workers) benefited from the program and return back to home country in 2013.

Coming to 2017, around 40,000 undocumented Nepalese migrant workers working in Saudi Arabia could benefit from this amnesty, according to Nepal Embassy, Saudi Arabia. Following the data of Department of Foreign employment, Nepal, in the fiscal year 2070/71, 86,876 Nepalese migrant workers took labour permit to join employment in Saudi Arabia and the number of Nepalese migrant workers (both documented and undocumented) working in Saudi Arabia is estimated to be more than 6,00,000.

Any undocumented Nepalese migrant workers returning to Nepal under amnesty program could re-enter to Saudi Arabia to work as a migrant worker because the migrant won't face the consequences associated with the Deportee Fingerprint System. Under this system undocumented workers who have their fingerprint taken prior to departure were not allowed to re-enter the country. Under normal circumstances, it is almost impossible for workers to leave the country without facing jail terms along with huge fines or penalties for violating the labour law of Saudi Arabia.

Assisting Through IEC Materials

Center for Migration andInternational Relations (CMIR) took an initiation to develop an Amnesty Poster to aware and facilitate the undocumented Nepalese migrant worker in Saudi Arabia who could benefit from the program and return back to Nepal safely. PravasiSuchana Sathi is an initiative of CMIR with the support from Accountabilitylab, it aims to promote/ensure the access/right to information of Nepalese migrant workers by proving understandable, reliable, effective, timely, and process oriented information. To reach out many migrant workers and their families, CMIR mobilizes it different layers of network from national or international level.

Why This Poster

Announcement or provisions like amnesty are not pre-planned or it comes as a law, so the only means to know about the announcement is through news and social media. Since the social media rarely tells us about the process to befit from announcement such as where to go, what has to be done, what are the documents required, required cost and time and other - the targeted group, even after being informed could not benefit from the announcement. In some cases the media information might be misleading or insufficient. So, this poster functions as a means - which not only well inform the undocumented migrant worker about the announcement, but also facilitate them to join the process and return back to Nepal. Since this poster make use of info-graphics, we believe even the low literate migrant workers could benefit from the poster.

Author, Yubrai Nepal