Kafala system

Resumen El reconocimiento en España de las medidas de protección de menores adoptadas en otros países suscita problemas si estas no tienen una equivalencia fácil con las instituciones de protección españolas. Pero aún más complicado puede ser adoptar una medida de protección como la constitución de una adopción sobre estos menores extranjeros en España cuando su ley nacional prohíbe que sean adoptados. La kafala
islámica plantea precisamente estas situaciones y a ellas pretende dar respuesta la Ley de Adopción Internacional, cuya última reforma excluye la adopción de estos menores como regla general. La solución adoptada por el legislador español no es ajena a otras seguidas en Estados con un problema similar y se alinea con la jurisprudencia del Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos, pero es precisa una valoración crítica sobre si esta opción es la que mejor protege el interés de estos menores en España.

Most studies on the mobility of highly skilled migrants have been examined with a framework of global talent mobility and under conditions of neoliberal governance and economic globalization. In this study we challenge the notion of the hypermobile knowledge worker. Utilizing mixed methods, we examine the factors that attracted highly skilled migrants to Qatar and the conditions under which they might leave in the future. Rather than finding a group of footloose migrants attracted primarily to high-wage jobs, a lack of taxation or amenities, and with multiple alternative locations of residence, we find that highly skilled migrants exist on a spectrum of immobility. More significantly, this immobility depends on the migrant's region of origin. For Asian and Western migrants immobility is attributed to the Kafala system or employer sponsorship, which hinders occupational and spatial mobility and ties workers to their sponsors. Arab highly skilled migrants are especially affected by lack of security and stability in their home countries, which makes these workers involuntarily immobile. The former group seem to be willing to accept a reduced level of agency and mobility for high income, whereas for the latter security and stability are more fundamental to their decision to come to Qatar.

A palavra Kafala em árabe significa “patrocínio” e refere-se ao sistema adotado para
contratação de mão de obra imigrante para vários países árabes1
. Este sistema se constitui por
um arranjo assimétrico entre empregador-empregado e permite que trabalhadores migrantes
sejam “patrocinados” por indivíduos ou empresas para trabalhar no exterior, na maioria das
vezes em funções domésticas ou da construção civil. Boa parte desses trabalhadores são
oriundos da Etiópia, Sri Lanka, Filipinas, Índia, Paquistão e Afeganistão , já a seleção e
contratação é intermediada por agências de trabalho situadas nos países “fornecedores” dessa
mão de obra com representantes nos países contratantes.

Following the post-2019 economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Beirut explosion, the Lebanese economy, including migration flows, has collapsed, and migrant domestic workers (MDWs) under the kafala system have been among those most impacted by these crises, with many losing their jobs, being voluntarily or involuntarily deported, or becoming homeless. This paper will argue that the 2019 economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Beirut explosion exacerbated the existing racialized and gendered marginalization of MDWs in Lebanon under the Kafala system, leading to increased unemployment, mass emigration and deportation, surging homelessness, and gender-based violence.

Küreselleşen dünyada kapitalizmin yeni arayışlar içerine girdiği gerçeği ile karşı karşıyayız. Bu arayışlar daha çok kar elde amacıyla dönem dönem farklı kaynaklara ihtiyaç duyarak beslenmeye çalışmaktadır. Bu çerçevede modern dünyada artık kapitalizmin beslendiği alanlardan birini dünya'da yüksek hareketlilikte devam eden göç hareketleri oluşturmaktadır. Kapitalistlerin sermaye artımı için ucuz işçi, yüksek emek, güvencesiz çalıştırma dinamikleri hızla artmaktadır. Bu noktada göçmenlerin kapitalist sistemde yeni bir alan açtığını söylemek mümkündür. Göçmenlerin savunmasız ve vatansız pozisyonları onların bu sistem içerisine girmeye zorlamakta ve emeğini satmasına, daha ucuz işlerde, kirli işlerde, yüksek saatlerde ve güvencesiz şartlarda çalışmasına neden olmaktadır. Bu makalede göçmenlerin kapitalist sistem içerisindeki yerleri ve göçmen işçi programlarının sorunları üzerine tartışma yürütülecektir. Dünya'da bir çok bölgede uygulanan göçmen işçi programlarının gelişmiş veya gelişmemiş ülke olmasının hiçbir önemi olmadığı ve elde edilen veriler neticesinde hepsinin bir ortak ideoloji ile hareket ettiğini söylemek mümkündür. Bu ideoloji emeğin sömürüsü ve insanın değersizliğine neden olup "ötekileştirme" kavramının görünürlüğünü ortaya koyar. Araştırmada en çok göç alan ve veren ülkelerdeki bazı programlar ve sorunları incelenmiştir. Bu doğrultuda Körfez ülkelerindeki Kafala sistemi, Kanada'da TWS programı Tayland'daki Vietnamlılar ve Pakistan bölgeleri incelenmiştir. Neoliberal politikaların neden olduğu yeni sınıf döngüsü bu eksende değerlendirilecektir. Çalışmada ayrıca Guy Standing'in yeni sınıf kavramı olan "Prekarya" kavramından faydalanılacaktır. Prekaryalaşma bağlamında nioliberal politikaların prekaryalaşmayı nasıl tetiklediği açıklanacaktır. Araştırmada, nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden döküman/metin analizi yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Çalışmanın örneklemini dünyada en çok göç alan bölgeler olan Körfez Ülkeleri, Pakistan,Vietnam, Kanada ve Türkiye'de bulanan göçmen işçiler oluşturmaktadır.

An advertising brief “to raise awareness of gender inequality in Lebanon” by the private philanthropic Hariri Foundation generated an advertising campaign which through its interactivity and simplicity became a salient cultural moment for addressing women’s rights in the country. The uptake of the campaign was built into advertising billboards where members of the viewing public were asked to physically place an accent on various keywords to change them from masculine to feminine form in Modern Standard Arabic. Linguistic expressions central to Lebanese citizenship such as your right [ حقك ] and your responsibility [ مسؤوليتك ], which in their generic unmarked form are read as masculine, shift in their pronunciation and meaning when a kasra accent mark is placed below the expression under the penultimate letter. The red kasra emerged as an iconic symbol that soon was found placed on other billboards by ordinary citizens, on urban graffiti, circulated online and worn on a pin by many national politicians and celebrities. This chapter explores how the multimodal engagement of this campaign, its playfulness, generated momentum for broader political activism within the country. Through interviews with members of the advertising team, as well as an exploration of the campaign itself both on the streets of Beirut and on social media, I analyze the dynamics of active language reform and its effects on public sensibilities towards the public role of women in Lebanese society.

This study aims to analyze the forms of social security that occur in the lives of Buton migrant fishermen, both formal and informal. This study uses a qualitative method with a descriptive approach to illustrate various forms of social security of poor fishermen (Masnait) families on the West Coast of Seram Island. Collecting data through in-depth interviews together with informants and observations to see the fishing activities of fishermen and the realities of family life of fishermen. The results showed that the socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the families of the fishermen of the community on the west coast of the island of Seram were still in poverty, where the role of his wife and children was still high in supporting the family's economy and a lifestyle that was verified by work undertaken to meet their basic needs. Forms of social security for families of fishermen, both foram and informal, are a guarantee of life for fishing families in the midst of poverty.

This thesis critically discusses the Kafala system, its mechanism and reason behind its existence in Kuwait. Drawing on ethnographic and field-based observations in Kuwait, there is increasing pressure from NGOs and human rights activists not only for improving the democratic rights and conditions of citizens, but also those of non- citizens such as unskilled migrant workers, who in some Gulf countries far outnumber the local populations.
We discuss reasons behind Kuwait’s desire to keep the system active for reasons that defy human rights treatment but abide by security of the country. Despite evidence of the political will to introduce reforms that are consistent with international labor standards and conventions, the core elements of the Kafala system still denies basic civic rights to migrant workers and make them vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and trafficking.

G ovrning Lbour M igation in N epal ija p a ti & Lim b u Governing Labour Migration in Nepal looks at the legal and policy framework that regulates migrant labour originating in Nepal. It examines the country’s laws related to foreign employment, bilateral agreements signed with destination countries and international conventions ratified, all of which directly or indirectly govern labour migration from Nepal. Analysing the implications and relevance of the legal and policy regimes currently in place and identifying the gaps therein, the book provides recommendations to help in the convergence of the welfare and rights standards enshrined in the various instruments. This volume will be a valuable addition to the literature on foreign labour migration, a subject that is gaining greater significance the world over. First published in 2012, the book has been updated to reflect all developments till the time of its publication in August 2017.

As globalism becomes an increasingly encroaching force, nation-states strive to maintain social solidarity to counter effects such as extensive migration flows and accelerated acculturation. Owing to the unique history and socio-political nature of GCC nation-states, the methods of establishing and maintaining the spirit of the nation and imagined community are very particular and contingent on exclusion and glorification of ethnic origins. This paper explores the intellectual viability of Rene Girard’s scapegoating mechanism in national identity discourse with a particular focus on GCC nation-states, and particularly Kuwait as a case study. Based on that, the paper asks, “How does discourse maintain national identity as populations become more fluid and transient in an increasingly globalized world?”  In line with Girard’s definition of the scapegoating mechanism, it is when the majority identifies and physically “sacrifices” lesser socially integrated surrogate victims to diffuse internal tensions. To examine intellectual sacrifice in GCC national identity discourse, the paper presents a theoretical framework identifying the elements that lead to nationalistic sentiments and hostilities toward the Other within a nation-state (i.e. imagined community) both in general and within the GCC nation-states, followed by a survey of Kuwaiti newspaper headlines spanning the years of 2010-2015 to identify common patterns of impersonalization, and aggregation, among others. The findings show that public discourse in newspapers clearly reflects social dynamics among nationals and non-nationals within rentier GCC nation-states. This study concludes that there is a tendency for rentier GCC nation-states to utilize “intellectual sacrifice” to maintain their national solidarity as a result of demographic imbalance.

Professor Mari Matsuda is a civil rights lawyer, peace activist, and an established scholar. Her academic contribution is rooted in the American legal discourse, jurisprudence of the outsider, feminist critique of law and, not in the least, Critical Race Theory (CRT). Merited as one of the founding thinkers and practitioners behind Critical Race Theory, Matsuda’s lawyerly work coalesces the academic and the practical. As a critical race theorist, she examined the legacy of the American legal system, and its historical establishment, from a bottom-up outlook (Matsuda, 1987). Reinforcing the victim’s perception against institutionalised disparities, Matsuda sided with the underdog. Her work emphasised that only through the scrutiny of the legal system can there be a viability for historical reparations, justice, and most importantly, peace for all society’s factions.

Most studies on the mobility of highly skilled migrants have been examined with a framework of global talent mobility and under conditions of neoliberal governance and economic globalization. In this study we challenge the notion of the hypermobile knowledge worker. Utilizing mixed methods, we examine the factors that attracted highly skilled migrants to Qatar and the conditions under which they might leave in the future. Rather than finding a group of footloose migrants attracted primarily to high-wage jobs, a lack of taxation or amenities, and with multiple alternative locations of residence, we find that highly skilled migrants exist on a spectrum of immobility. More significantly, this immobility depends on the migrant's region of origin. For Asian and Western migrants immobility is attributed to the Kafala system or employer sponsorship, which hinders occupational and spatial mobility and ties workers to their sponsors. Arab highly skilled migrants are especially affected by lack of security and stability in their home countries, which makes these workers involuntarily immobile. The former group seem to be willing to accept a reduced level of agency and mobility for high income, whereas for the latter security and stability are more fundamental to their decision to come to Qatar.

With an estimated 250,000 migrant domestic workers (MDW), migrant women perform household chores normally assigned to Lebanese women in their own households. Since labor laws do not apply to MDWs, MDW from the Global South in particular are affected by exploitative regulations under the Kafāla system. Due to gender-specific aspects of migration and asylum and gendered and racialized labor division, they inevitably become a focus of public interest. This paper conducts an overview of Lebanese gendered and racialized labor laws under Kafāla based on a materialist theory, analyzing a range of local NGOs that address MDW’s rights.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the Harroudj c. France case, has recently assessed the compatibility of the French national PIL system with the European Convention on Human Rights, regarding the refusal to convert kafala into an adoption in those situations in which the law of the nationality of the minor excludes adoption. From the Court’s point of view that approach is compatible with the right to respect for private and family life of the minor (article 8), since the kafala institution is enough to protect properly the minor’s interest. From the Spanish perspective, it is noteworthy that this development may also be of relevance with regard to the evolution of national systems that allow the conversion into adoption based on the minor’s interest. * Profesora ayudante doctora de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. ANUARIO ESPAÑOL DE DERECHO INTERNACIONAL PRIVADO 2012 456

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives globally: while most attention has been on the various challenges faced by each country, there are also the people 'stranded' overseas with little if any support in getting home. The stranded people can be tourists, visiting families, students, or they are migrant workers whose remittances bolster the household and home country's national GDP. It is these migrants that are often overlooked in COVID-19 responses. In particular, the women who are employed in the domestic work sector, who are the last on repatriation flight lists and returnee policies and programs. This paper looks at Nepali women migrant workers in Lebanon, and how COVID-19 has made an already precarious working life even more so. It focuses on how women in these situations have been able to exercise their agency in a complex socio‑political environment and how this has been disrupted by COVID-19 and the hostile political and social environment at home for these Ne...

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With an estimated 250,000 migrant domestic workers (MDW), migrant women perform household chores normally assigned to Lebanese women in their own households. Since labor laws do not apply to MDWs, MDW from the Global South in particular are affected by exploitative regulations under the Kafāla system. Due to gender-specific aspects of migration and asylum and gendered and racialized labor division, they inevitably become a focus of public interest. This paper conducts an overview of Lebanese gendered and racialized labor laws under Kafāla based on a materialist theory, analyzing a range of local NGOs that address MDW’s rights.

Despite seemingly open immigration policies and rights-based reforms, the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries recently engaged in international and domestic policies to better control immigration. This article unpacks the realpolitik of mass immigration conducted by the Gulf states by showing how they use retaliatory and coercive migration diplomacies as well as migrant rightswashing on the international scene to shape immigration flows. At the domestic level, Gulf governments’ reforms seek to police labour market segmentation and institutionalise a regime of “differential exclusion” that officialises intersectional discriminations across nationalities and class. Drawing upon sources in English and Arabic, as well as interviews with public officials, businessmen, and migrants in the region over a decade (2006-2017), this article describes how states and nonstate actors, including businessmen, migrant networks, and brokers, operate policies and practices of control. I first ...

There are growing numbers of people who migrate across borders, looking for better employment and life opportunities in recent years, and the number of women who have crossed borders to work also increases significantly. Women migrant workers are one of the most vulnerable groups in society due to different reasons. This article investigates undocumented women migrants workers’ common challenges based on semi-structured interviews from March to October 2020 in Jordan. Moreover, this study explores the impact of COVID-19 and its preventive restrictions on undocumented women migrant workers. Finally, the paper discusses the “we are all in this together” statement, repeated by some politicians and non-government organisations since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, along with the problems faced by undocumented women migrants in society. This research indicates that undocumented women migrant workers’ vulnerability has deepened significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis as they are one of the most exploited groups in the labour market.

At the time of this writing, the United States Senate has passed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act (S. 744). The bill is the product of countless political compromises and would significantly transform the U.S. immigration system. This paper explores shortcomings in U.S. immigration policy, deconstructs provisions in the bill, and makes policy proposals that would protect and empower migrants who interface with the U.S. immigration system in dangerous and under-regulated environments at the border and in sending communities, in labour recruitment networks, and in the U.S. workforce. Ultimately, the paper seeks to continue an ongoing conversation that challenges the criminalisation of migration which perpetuates vulnerability, and instead forwards rights-based policies that would promote shared prosperity.

La Revue des droits de l'homme Revue du Centre de recherches et d'études sur les droits fondamentaux Actualités Droits-Libertés | 2015 Vers un renforcement en France du statut juridique de l'enfant issu d'une GPA effectuée à l'étranger ? Gestation pour autrui (Conseil d'Etat

Dhobi ka kuta, Na ghar ka na ghaat ka 1 The washer-man's dog belongs neither to the home nor to the river bank. There is no precise English equivalent to this Hindustani proverb. 2 A rolling stone gathers no moss, between the devil and the deep blue sea, between a rock and a hard place, torn between two masters-none of these really fit. The dhobi ka kuta is the dog who figuratively and literally runs every day between two places, two obligations, and two choices. Does he stay behind to guard the master's house or does he guard his master as he washes clothes by the river? There will be a trade-off either way. The phrase does not conjure up vagabond restlessness or nomadic liberation. It evokes the anxiety of rootlessness, and the lack of certainty about choice and loyalty. It is about the doubt cast your way for not picking one thing over the other. It is about being stuck in the vagaries of the in-between. Migrants' lives, at the existential level, reflect the dilemma of the dhobi's kuta. Temporary labor migrants in the Persian Gulf are perpetually tied to obligations to those they have left behind as well as duties to those they live among in the moment. Really belonging neither at home nor to their currently adopted land, they are occupants of a liminal space where they are without political status, without political weight, without political solidarities, and without political rights. For the duration of their time overseas, and for some this might mean decades, they have a limited claim to any of those things in their country of nationality as well. Narratives of Gulf labor migrants frequently veer between two poles. From one perspective they are seen as voluntary economic actors, animated only in principle by their material goals. Momentary contributors to economies that need their labor, they lack demonstrable loyalty to their nation-states and have little longterm connection to the countries that host them. From this position, temporary labor migrants might at most be considered an interest group unto themselves, whose collective goals are merely better pay and improved employment conditions. The flip side of this is the view of migrants as voiceless, deprived of any agency, vulnerable, and in need of others to advocate on their behalf. Casting migrants solely as victims, this pole also diminishes their capacity, value, positionality, and engagement in the Gulf. Both of these views elide the nuances of migrants' subjective experiences and autonomy and divert our attention from their multiple practices and forms of resistance to power and oppression. In the era of globalization with its insatiable hunger for cheaper sources of labor, migrant workers regularly contend with situations of exploitation and abysmal labor rights violations. However, migrants' experiences as well as their responses are a product of dysfunctionalities in our global political and economic systems and the structural inequalities they produce. If labor migrants are a sidelined community, for political scientists they are frequently a marginalized subject. Abandoned as a problematic category by political ideologies of the left and right, lacking broader goals or mechanisms of cooperation with other social classes or social interests, and seldom incorporated into the study of social movements, they have been overlooked by those who study political phenomena in the Persian Gulf.

In a global economy where capital moves freely, border and legal restrictions are imposed on human bodies, giving rise to illegal and undocumented migration. The so called feminisation of migration looks at females as a dominant category in migration and denotes the surge in women migration which is also subject to restriction on mobility across borders. In a global economy with high tendency for securitisation and border control, migrating women, akin to other migrant groups, are also prone to be undocumented or illegal migrants in their host countries.

The highly gendered and radicalized global job market has left many migrant women working in fields that have traditionally been ought to be “female jobs”. In light of the classical invisibility of the work of women in the domestic field, the work of migrant female domestic workers, despite the benefits to the economies of their countries, is also invisiblized. However, the exploitation and abuse that many migrant domestic workers experience has put to tension their invisibility.

Intrigued by the technologies in which migrant domestic workers are rendered visible– often only within the category of being victims or battered- this paper will look at Lebanon as a case.

This research paper aims to critically engage with migrant domestic workers in Lebanon by probing the relationship between domestic work and governmentality. It examines the relationship between, on the one hand, the legal, social and spatial barriers related to the sector, and on the other the (in)visibility of migrant domestic workers. Moreover, the paper further examines the politics and power of representation and the production of objects of knowledge, as well as the impact of such a discourse on the (in)visibility these migrant domestic workers. The paper  highlights the implications of this on eliding the resistance and agency of these migrant domestic workers as well as eliding the gendered response to globalization.

In contrast to the dominant masculinised discourses on global cities, this project explores the feminised and private spheres of global cities—‘domestic work’ in London. Domestic work is of particular concern for London, given the concentration of domestic workers in the capital and the large numbers of migrants employed in the sector. In the polarised London labour market, migrant domestic workers are concentrated at the bottom end of the labour market and suffer from high levels of exploitation, but often face difficulties to articulate their social and political will and to intervene in public forums. Our participatory video project with 12 migrant domestic workers from The Voice of Domestic Workers, a grassroots campaigning and advocacy organisation in London, suggests that participatory art can play a significant role in supporting the voice of marginalised communities. It reveals the power of art as a voice of dissent and as a tool for advancing social justice. Our project also highlights the importance of shifting the attention from the object of art and art as end product, to the subject of art and art as a social process in which social relationships may be restructured, in order to better understand the potential role of art in helping oppressed groups to achieve social changes. The latter approach implies a stronger sense of agency regarding the ability of marginalised communities to participate directly in structural changes.

Migrant Domestic Workers (MDWs) are among the most vulnerable labour forces around the globe. Nearly all of them are lower-class women who have been forced to migrate by their economic precariousness. Ethiopian female migrants are most of the domestic workers who work in the households in Lebanon in an adversely poor living and labour condition. Ethiopian migrant domestic workers, along with all other female migrant domestic workers in the Middle Eastern and Gulf countries have been undergone severe forms of exploitation and abuse by the employers.

Avec cet arrêt, la Cour a fermement confirmé l’obligation des autorités nationales de faciliter leur entrée en tant qu’ «autre membre de la famille» au sens de l’article 3(2)(a) de la directive 2004/38/CE, autant que l’obligation, pour les États membres, d’exercer leur marge d’appréciation à la lumière du considérant 31 de la directive et conformément aux dispositions de la Charte, ce qui se traduira dans certaines circonstances par une obligation d’octroyer l’entrée et le séjour à l’enfant concerné. Ainsi, la décision dans l’affaire S.M. apporte une forme de sécurité juridique pour les enfants comme S.M., qui ne dépendront plus de la bonne volonté du ministre (ou de l’agent chargé d’examiner les demandes de permis d’entrée).
Finalement, cette décision est susceptible d’avoir des incidences sur d’autres affaires concernant des personnes qui font partie de la famille élargie d’un citoyen de l’Union et à qui le droit d’entrer et de séjourner sur le territoire d’un État membre a été refusé. En tout cas, la question se pose de savoir si le pouvoir d’appréciation des États est également restreint s’agissant des demandes d’entrées d’autres membres de la famille élargie. On pense notamment à la situation d’un partenaire, où le refus peut également avoir un impact sur l’exercice des droits de libre circulation du citoyen de l’Union.
(Cite as : Cools, L., « Kafala, «descendant direct» et «autre membre de la famille» : Commentaire de l’arrêt S.M. c. Entry Clearance Officer, UK, Visa Section de la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne du 26 mars 2019 », J.D.J., 2020/4, n° 394, p. 3-10.)

Unos 70.000 etíopes, en su mayoría mujeres, arriesgan su vida y cruzan anualmente en patera el Mar Rojo y el Golfo de Adén en busca de oportunidades laborales en países árabes

No todos los migrantes subsaharianos sueñan con cruzar el Mar Mediterráneo para alcanzar las costas europeas. Existen otras rutas migratorias y otros sueños. Las aguas del Mar Rojo y el Golfo de Adén son las 'otras' vías marítimas que atraviesan de forma clandestina miles de jóvenes etíopes que escapan del desempleo y la pobreza de su país para alcanzar el 'sueño árabe' de conseguir una vida mejor. Un sueño que en la mayoría de las ocasiones se convierte en una pesadilla de principio a fin. Primero, al enfrentarse a la tortuosa travesía que supone llegar hasta Arabia Saudí y después, al chocar con la dura realidad de servidumbre y explotación que les espera como 'sirvientas' en el caso de las mujeres.

Según los últimos datos de la Organización Internacional para la Migración (IOM), un total de 71.907 etíopes llegaron a las costas yemeníes a lo largo de 2014, mientras que más de dos centenares (265) murieron en el intento. Los métodos son prácticamente los mismos que aquellos utilizados por los africanos que arriesgan la vida en el Mediterráneo rumbo a Europa. Mujeres, niños y jóvenes hacinados y con apenas agua y alimentos cruzan en patera el estrecho pero peligroso corredor marítimo que separa el Cuerno de África de la Península Arábica.Yemen es la puerta de entrada al 'sueño árabe' de los migrantes irregulares etíopes. Un país actualmente en guerra, que hace casi imposible completar el viaje sin ser víctima de un secuestro o una extorsión en el mejor de los casos. Básicamente, son utilizadas dos rutas para llegar al país yemení; la primera, vía Djibouti cruzando el Mar Rojo-ésta es la más transitada en los últimos años-y la segunda, vía Puntland (noreste de Somalia) atravesando el Golfo de Adén.

https://www.elconfidencial.com/mundo/2015-08-02/en-busca-del-sueno-arabe_949503/

Migrating to the Middle East region in search for economic opportunities can sometimes pose a serious risk for the hundreds and thousands of women from Asia who are offered employment in private households across the Gulf as domestic workers. Although female migrant workers from any of the Asian countries can be vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, this article will primarily focus on Bangladeshi domestic workers. This is because the money earned by migrant workers, which they send back home to support their families and which are known as foreign remittances, constitutes one of the largest sectors of the Bangladesh economy, second only to the ready-made garments industry. For fiscal year 2018-2019, the Bangladesh Bank recorded $16.4 billion Dollars of inflows of such foreign remittances into the country. While some migrant workers succeed in achieving their dream of economic and social advancement, many others fall into the trap of debt, non-payment of wages, physical and sexual abuse. The questions of why this is the case and what measures can be put in place to ensure adequate protection for migrant domestic workers will be discussed in this article.

Among South Asian countries, it is for Bangladeshis that the financial cost of migration to the Gulf is the highest. The main reason may be the very large number of labour contracts obtained through ‘personal visas’ (more than 40% in Bangladesh) which are not or not properly controlled by the State institutions and are sold at a high price. The potential migrants are thus left in a particularly vulnerable situation from their departure time (high rate of indebtedness) to their arrival and stay in the country of migration. This vulnerability is all the more increased by the lack of support from the Bangladeshi authorities regarding especially low skilled migrants in the receiving countries.
Among them are fishermen which represent a paradigmatic example of this difficult situation. Based on fieldworks in Hatiya, a small island of the Bay of Bengal from where these fishermen are originating, and in several harbours of Oman, I intend to highlight the different mechanisms which make migration a very risky gamble for these men. From the recruitment process through local networks, the conditions of work and salaries, the unavoidable path to an irregular status and eventually the arrest and deportation of most of these workers, I propose to show how, structurally, their migratory experience almost always leads to failure and increased poverty for them and their family.

La kafalah e la sua circolazione nello spazio giuridico europeo: una indagine di diritto comparato Salvatore Casabona L'intento dell'indagine è provare a rileggere con un approccio comparatistico la reazione che l'alieno, ovvero la kafalah internazionale, innesca nel confronto con tradizioni e ordinamenti giuridici lontani rispetto al mondo da cui esso proviene, nello spazio giuridico europeo. Si è ritenuto di osservare dapprima le varie strategie di regolazione adottate dagli stati nazionali con riguardo all'efficacia giuridica della kafalah negli ordinamenti interni, focalizzando l'attenzione in particolar modo sugli sforzi di giurisprudenza e dottrina tesi a individuare un "equivalente" dell'istituto straniero nello strumentario di diritto di famiglia nazionale per la protezione del minore. Successivamente, il piano di indagine si è spostato dal contesto nazionale a quello europeo, e in conseguenza si sono isolate tre macrotematiche, connesse al diritto dell'Unione e interconnesse tra loro: quella del ricongiungimento familiare dello straniero; quello della cittadinanza europea; quello della tutela dei diritti fondamentali. * The purpose of the essay is to conduct a comparative analysis on the impact of the kafalah on some European legal systems in the framework of the European area of freedom, security and justice, trying to single out some essential features shared in common by the different models of regulatory strategies. In particular, in the multi-level model of European regulation, kafalah has been addressed either from a national jurisdiction point of view (focusing on the legal recognition at Member State level), either from a European point of view, stressing some relevant fields of interplay: kafalah and right to family reunification; kafalah and European citizenship; kafalah and protection of fundamental rights.

Focusing on a women’s rights group in Lebanon, KAFA, this article offers a discursive reading of the NGO’s cam- paign strategies that transform discussions of gender-based violence from a private familial to a public societal issue. KAFA, ‘enough’ in Arabic, engages its audience on medi- ated platforms, providing audiences with participatory strat- egies through images and videos. I ground my analysis in my interview with KAFA’s communication director, interrog- ating KAFA’s innovative media strategies to build a wider movement. Using global media and performance theory, I examine how pedagogical media strategies expand the public sphere and facilitate audience intervention into systemic issues. These media strategies act as necessary scaffolds towards building nation-wide support against gender-based violence.

The paper critically comments on the M.S. judgment delivered on 26 March 2019 by the Court of Justice of the European Union. It is here argued that this judgment represents another piece of evidence of the influence of EU Law on the solution to the private international law
problems concerning the continuity of family status established abroad. Indeed, according to the M.S. judgment, the family status resulting from an Islamic kafala passed in Algeria (to the benefit of an Algerian child and two French spouses who had moved to the United Kingdom
for working reasons) must be recognised in the British legal system. Otherwise, the United Kingdom would violate EU Law on family reunification – which of course is highly related to the free movement of persons and thus to the European economic integration – in addition
to both the right to respect for private and family life and the best interests of the child as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The value of the M.S. judgment is also assessed against the relevant international treaty provisions and case law of
the European Court of Human Rights concerning the Islamic kafala.

This article stipulates a brief review of historical labor use by the state and colonial rulers. The dreaded history of labor exploitation compels us to rethink whether at present there lay any vestiges of those procurement in past. What distinguishes millions of labor out flow at present from poor countries to the developed ones that from the forceful slavery? There is a thin line of separation between them. If we compare their vulnerabilities in terms of their work permanency, citizenship, the burden of their rearing at the country of origin, we see the exemption of responsibilities on the part of countries of destination. Present world has witnessed very different scenario of people's movement across borders of different state which was almost free or one could travel without hindrance of passport and visa before World War I.

The Middle East is home to a significant number of noncitizens. These noncitizens include refugees and stateless populations, as well as the millions of migrant workers throughout the region. In fact, refugees, stateless populations, and migrant workers are often overlapping categories. In the Gulf, approximately half the population does not hold Gulf Cooperation Council citizenship, yet these noncitizens play a critical role in maintaining the social order. If a more democratic Middle East is to be constituted by an inclusive vision of citizenship, then the rights of noncitizens need to be made central to any political platform. Exclusive and restrictive notions of citizenship combined with a hierarchy between citizens and noncitizens form part of ruling classes’ political strategy to divide their populations, maintain a loyal citizenry, accumulate wealth, and restrict political decision making to elites. Therefore, projects of inclusive citizenship must also extend rights to noncitizens to create more democratic, participatory, and egalitarian societies.

El reconocimiento en España de las medidas de protección de menores adoptadas en otros países suscita problemas si estas no tienen una equivalencia fácil con las instituciones de protección españolas. Pero aún más complicado puede ser adoptar 1 Profesora titular de Derecho Internacional Privado. Este trabajo se enmarca en el proyecto de investigación «La evolución de las instituciones jurídicas de protección de menores» (DER2015-69261, MINECO-FEDER).

Since the early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of female workers from African and South Asian countries have migrated to Lebanon, to primarily serve as domestic workers in private households. These workers arrive, reside and work in the country according to the Kafala (or sponsorship) System; which has been denounced by many researchers, activists, and workers themselves to be the reason for their vulnerability and susceptibility. A large portion of these migrant domestic workers are deprived of their basic workers and human rights within the Lebanese territory and have no legal security of employment under the Lebanese labor law. This thesis addresses the relationship between the Kafala System and the abuse of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon and analyzes whether there are other reasons contributing to the abuse. By going through the literature on domestic work, tracing the origin of domestic work and the Kafala System in Arab countries, examining its current regulations in Lebanon, as well as discussing Lebanese employers' behavior towards the Kafala system and migrant domestic workers; this thesis argues that Lebanese employers' perception of migrant domestic workers is another major factor that contributes to their abuse. Based on a number of interviews conducted with Lebanese employers as well as on policy reports and studies, this thesis seeks to determine how vital it is to recognize employers' perception of migrant domestic workers as an important factor when discussing the issue of abuse. The argument endorses addressing employers' acuity of their “maids” as an actual problem, as failing to do so, may hinder the impact of potential policy reform.