‘Kafala was sugar-coated slavery’

Mumbai dental consultant shares his experience on the now abolished system

Mumbai: Amid hectic discussion regarding the impact of the end of Saudi Arabia’s Kafala system, Mumbai based Dental consultant and oral oncologist Dr. John Paul who has spent 27 years in Saudi Arabia said, "Kafala system was a sugar-coated slavery."

Paul who was born and brought up in Mumbai left for Saudi Arabia in 1990 at the age of 32 years to earn enough money to be able to buy a bigger house in Mumbai, a dream that is unthinkable for most middle-class citizens. While his wife Sandra Paul strongly raised their two daughters at home in Mumbai’s Dahisar suburb, Paul was navigating all odds to provide everything he could to the family.

From Kafala system, to religious bias to memories that changed his perspective towards life for ever— Paul has a pool of experiences to share. “Kafala system was a sugar-coated slavery. I was educated, yet my passport was held by my Kafeel (sponsor). However, I was slightly in better position because my Kafeel was the Ministry of Health. My only challenge under the Kafala system was that I had no freedom or independence to travel back to India on short notice even in an emergency situation. It all depended on the sponsor,” said Paul.

Paul visited India once a year. However, it couldn’t be planned on a short notice, and required a lengthy procedure to be followed. He highlighted that the condition of the unskilled migrant workers like the masons, plumbers etc, was worse who couldn’t visit their country even once in five years because they were under an individual sponsor and he could exploit them as per his will. “I was never tortured as such. I was given my dues on time. I did not face any harassment. However, I faced physical harassment outside of my job. In case of individual Kafeels, the workers were completely at the mercy of the employer and faced a lot of atrocities and inhuman conditions. Registering a complaint for a human rights abuse was not a viable option due to a lot of reasons,” added Paul.

Motivating reasons

Paul cites a lot of reasons that still motivate him to visit Saudi on a visitor’s visa in future like the state-of the art roads, picturesque sites, cheap petrol, and most importantly, improving gender-equality of balance, and religious tolerance which was not a case when he lived in Saudi.

Paul who bid adieu to Saudi Arabia in 2017 cited, “Women were not allowed to drive. Being a bachelor, I faced a lot of hard ships. I could not sit in gardens or go for shopping. My wife and I were continuously being insisted to embrace Islam. We were targeted, we were addressed as Kafirs. People have also urinated in font of our door, calling us Kafirs.”

These incidents motivated Paul to study his identity and research in the area of religion. These experiences of religious targeting motivated Paul to understand religion more, the quest of which made him complete his PHD in Theology.

Experts highlight that not only Indians, but migrants from other parts of the world too have been going to Saudi for job prospects, however, they do not wish to do the jobs which the South Asian migrants would agree to do. Sources claimed of migrants from Western countries never ended up taking up the unskilled jobs, and even if they did, they were paid much more than the Asian migrants for the same job.

Even as the quashing of Kafala system has come as a welcome move for 2.5 million Indians that are in Saudi, and other immigrants the implementation gap is still a matter of concern. Experts believe that the development could be a mirage and may turn out to be a strategic move of the Crown Prince to upgrade the image of the Kingdom on a global platform in bid to portray his country to be a progressive one to boost global investments.