Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Keep Your Passports: Reminder to Foreign Workers in Qatar, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait

More OFW Updates

Filipinos have been reminded to keep their passports instead of handing them over to their employers or placement agencies. Visas are not the property of a holder, but by the Philippine government, so passport holders can also be called caretakers of such travel and identity documents.

Therefore, keeping these passports under our care is paramount. That also means it must not be followed by others — employers, loan companies and the like — for whatever reason.

In the Middle East, many Filipinos are not free to keep their passports despite the laws that prohibit others, notably employers, from following them. Some employers seem to hold their worker’s hostage by keeping their passports in the guise of safekeeping.

In reality, while not strongly enforced or loosely defined, some guidelines implicitly bar employers from keeping worker’s passport:

- Advertisement -

Table of Contents

BAHRAIN

“No person shall be arrested, detained, imprisoned, searched or compelled to reside in a specified place, nor shall the residence of any person or his liberty to choose his place of residence or his liberty of movement be restricted, except in accordance with the law and under the supervision of the judicial authorities.”
Constitution of Bahrain Article 19 Section b

KUWAIT

- Advertisement -

“Companies in Kuwait will no longer be allowed to withhold employees’ passports under new labor laws being written, according to Arabic daily Al Shahid. A draft resolution is expected to be submitted to the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Minister of Planning and Development Hind Al- Subaih before the end of this month, the daily said, quoting ministry sources.”
Arabian Business 

“It [new law on domestic helpers] prohibits employers from confiscating workers’ passports, a common abuse, but fails to specify penalties.”
Human Rights Watch

OMAN

“It is illegal to keep the passport of the employee as it is a personal document and legally, the property of the government issuing it. In Oman, normally, a passport is handed over by the expat only to get a residence visa stamped on it, and as per the rules, it should be returned after the stamping.”

– Moath Al Ghilani, an Omani lawyer

QATAR

- Advertisement -

Qatar Labor Law – #4 of 2009 Regulating The Entry And Exit Of Expatriates In Qatar And Their Residence And Sponsorship
Article 9: The sponsor shall deliver the passport or travel document to the sponsored person once the procedures for issuing or renewing the residence permit are accomplished.
BrasemDoha

“The Law 4/2009 regulates the entry, exit, and residency of the country’s foreign workers (expatriates), and it gives adequate protection to the foreigners and guarantees their right to keep passports in their possession. Violation of the law could amount to a penalty of not less than QR10,000 to the sponsor or his representative for every passport that he keeps in his illegal custody.”
Doha legal activist and Migrant Asia regional co-ordinator Nizar Kochery

SAUDI ARABIA

The Labor Ministry has reiterated that it is the right of foreign workers to keep their passports and official documents.
“Anybody violating this rule will face serious penalties,” said Taysir Al-Mofraj, the ministry’s spokesman.
Arab News 

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention on the Abolition of Forced Labour

“Retaining workers’ passport also amounts to forcible work in violation of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention on the Abolition of Forced Labour – to which the UAE is a signatory. Employers who fail to give workers their passports on request are in breach of trust. The offense carries imprisonment of up to three years and/or fine amounting to AED20,000 or more,” quotes UAE Ministry of Labour Legal Department.
ILO

“It was stated in a decree by the Ministry of Interior (in December 2002) that it will be considered as an illegal action to retain the passports except by political parties. It is a personal travel document that proves the identity of the holder, and the laws stipulate that the bearer must keep his or her passport and present it to the government authorities upon request. Holding of passports by anyone without a court order, there will be a suitable punishment by the law.”
Jamie Liddington, head of employment at law firm Hadef & Partners 

- Advertisement -
Email Newsletter
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

Latest Updates

Filipino nurse in Melbourne suspended for stealing medical supplies and importing a skin-whitening medication

A Filipino nurse in Melboune received a warning for stealing medical supplies from her job in order to inject...
- Advertisement -

More Articles Like This

- Advertisement -
error: Content is protected !!