Using Islam to Protect the Rights of Migrant Workers: Bringing Kafala into Sharia Compliance in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Saudi Arabia is home to thousands of migrant domestic workers who cook, clean, and provide child-care in private homes. These individuals are not only subject to the kafala system, where their visa is strictly tied to their employer, but they are excluded from the protections accorded to other workers (both Saudi and non-Saudi) under Saudi Labor Law. Although Saudi Arabia has promulgated a set of regulations to govern the treatment of migrant domestic workers, these regulations guarantee only the most basic rights and are often not enforced. As a result, the mistreatment of migrant domestic workers in Saudi Arabia has become a topic of concern for both human rights organizations and the International Labour Organization. In this Comment, I provide a history of kafala in Saudi Arabia, an overview of the role of Islamic law (sharia) in Saudi governance, and an analysis of sharia-compliant labor protections to argue that Saudi Arabia can and should reform its laws around migrant domestic workers to protect their fundamental human rights. In doing so, Saudi Arabia would not only uphold its obligations under international human rights law, but would increase its compliance with sharia as well.