WASHINGTON, MARCH 28: A human rights organisation has called upon the United Nations to investigate the laws of Saudi Arabia and practices that discriminate against migrant workers, including women folk.The US-based ``Human Rights Watch'' pointed out before the United Nations Human Rights Commission, currently in session at Geneva, that Saudi Arabia was a major importer of labour from Egypt, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Yemen.
Migrant workers worldwide, it notes, are particularly vulnerable to human rights abuses and in this country, the risk is higher as the laws here are unable to protect the rights of workers. The organisation said among the 630 people executed in Saudi Arabia since 1990, half of them were foreigners.
Saudi Arabian laws give employers tremendous power over their foreign workers, placing significant restrictions on workers' freedom of movement, while offering almost no avenues of redress for their abuses.
Foreign workers must be sponsored by aSaudi national, and once in Saudi Arabia, the worker must have written authorisation from the sponsor to leave the country, travel outside the city of his or her employment, change jobs, or rent an apartment.
In many cases, employers confiscate workers' passports, leaving them subject to possible arrest and deportation as undocumented aliens, the human rights organisation said. These restrictions on movement sometimes give rise to conditions of forced labour, especially when workers live and work in rural areas, private compounds or private homes.
Women, employed as domestic helpers, are particularly vulnerable to forced labour as well as physical abuse, and all women are subject to additional restrictions like driving, access to certain public places, and ``immoral behaviour,'' including walking alone.
Although in theory Saudi Arabia's Labour Commission provides foreign and local workers with a neutral agency to adjudicate and arbitrate about disputes, rulings often unfairly favour employers. Thecommission's jurisdiction excludes large segments of the working population such as domestic helpers and illegal workers.
Commission offices can be difficult to reach, especially for women, and pursuing a complaint may require several visits, a costly and dangerous proposition for workers not in possession of a passport or written authorisation to travel to another city.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
