Leiden University Student Repository

Gowdan, Suad (2015)

Enslaved in the United Arab Emirates? Migrant Women from Indonesia under the Kafala System

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

Today, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has the largest recipients of migrants in the world. In order to govern the progressively migrant population in the GCC, the Kafala system was created. The system requires the sponsor-employer to assume full legal and economic responsibility for the migrant worker during their period in the GCC. Traditionally, the majority of literature on the Kafala system derives from human rights groups that criticize the sponsorship system. Human rights groups have gone so far as claiming the Kafala is a form of contemporary slavery and therefore should be abolished. Considering the claims made by the Human rights groups, this thesis analyzes how the Kafala system is comparable to a form of contemporary slavery and whether it is accurate to say that these workers are modern-day slaves.

Kafala system

Modern slavery

Slavery and Social Death

Orlando Patterson

Indonesian female domestic workers

United Arab Emirates

Author

Gowdan, Suad

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

The Middle East

Supervisors

Batmanghelichi, K.S.

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en