SPONSORSHIP SYSTEM CONTRIBUTES TO TRAFFICKING,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MUSCAT 000651 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP, G/TIP AND DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/25/2017 TAGS: PHUM PREL KCRM KWMN SMIG MU SUBJECT: SPONSORSHIP SYSTEM CONTRIBUTES TO TRAFFICKING, EXPLOITATION REF: A. 06 MUSCAT 1635 ¶B. MUSCAT 206 ¶C. DOHA 651 ¶D. KUWAIT 938 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Alfred A. Fonteneau, reasons 1.4 b/d. ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Contacts claim that the sponsorship system of recruiting and hiring low-skilled and domestic foreign workers contributes to trafficking in persons (TIP) in Oman. The system establishes conditions conducive to exploitation by making many workers dependent on their sponsors for their residency and basic needs, while the significant financial and legal responsibilities imposed upon sponsors leads some Omanis to try to unfairly recoup their hiring costs and tightly control the activities of their employees. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) reportedly is willing to consider alternatives to the current sponsorship system, but most contacts argue that there is little high-level support for or inclination to change the system in the near future. End summary. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sponsorship System Contributes to TIP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶2. (SBU) During recent discussions about the nature of TIP in Oman, some contacts in business and government told poloff that the sponsorship system - through which individuals and companies apply for governmental approval to bring foreign workers into the country - creates conditions under which abuse, exploitation, and trafficking can occur. Contacts at the MOM admit that the system establishes an asymmetric employer/employee relationship in which foreign workers are dependent upon their sponsor for their employment, legal status and, in many cases, basic needs such as food and lodging. This level of dependency places low-skilled workers - many of whom arrive in Oman with high debt to recruitment agencies in their home countries (ref A) - in a vulnerable position, and effectively strips them of the ability to materially affect the conditions of their employment. Reforming the system in favor of a more open and free labor market, these contacts argue, may be necessary to effectively combat TIP in Oman. - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Costs of Sponsorship - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶3. (SBU) Sponsorship can entail high initial costs which, contacts suggest, prompt some sponsors to view their workers as purchased commodities. In order to hire a domestic worker, for example, an Omani sponsor faces mandatory minimum costs associated with the worker's labor clearance, visa, medical check, labor card issuance and fingerprinting that total at least 250 Omani Rials (OR) (USD 650). If the sponsor chooses to recruit a maid from abroad through one of Oman's 64 licensed recruitment agencies, the sponsor's costs can increase by approximately 460 OR (USD 1,200) through recruitment fees and airfare. The MOM requires sponsors to show a monthly income of at least 350 OR (USD 910) before the Ministry approves the sponsor's application to employ a domestic worker. (Note: The average monthly salary for a college-educated Omani in the public sector is 600 OR, and slightly less in the private sector. End note.) At this minimum level, an individual sponsor may end up paying more than two months' salary just to recruit and hire a worker - an amount that the sponsor cannot legally recover if the maid or laborer abandons his/her employment. ¶4. (SBU) According to contacts, the relatively high up-front costs of the sponsorship system, combined with workers' dependency on their employers, leads some sponsors to exploit their workers in order to maintain control over their "investment." Common complaints of abuse among Filipina, Indian and Sir Lankan maids who have run away from their sponsors to embassy-operated safe houses include: nonpayment of wages; salary deductions as "repayment" for agency fees; limits on their freedom of movement either through the withholding of passports, labor cards, or locking them in their rooms; and long working hours with little food. Sponsors also are known to charge the worker a "release fee" that equals or exceeds the amount the sponsor paid in fees to the recruitment agency before allowing the worker to end his/her contract, which can present the worker with an insurmountable barrier to escaping exploitative conditions. - - - - - - - - - Continuing Abuses MUSCAT 00000651 002 OF 002 - - - - - - - - - ¶5. (SBU) Saleh Alamri, Director General of the MOM's Directorate of Labor Care, added that the sponsorship system has unintentionally helped to create a black market in the construction sector for foreign workers who have run away from their sponsors (locally known as "absconders"). According to MOM statistics, there were 2,479 absconders during the first quarter of 2007, up 34% from the same period last year. Alamri pointed to powerful economic incentives for low-skilled workers to abscond, despite the risk of deportation, and for construction companies to hire them. Most such workers earn approximately one to two Omani rials per day under standard employment contracts. As day laborers illegally working for multiple employers, they stand to make five times that amount. By hiring illegal workers without a contract, employers avoid paying any of the fixed costs associated with sponsorship and evade responsibility for lodging, food, medical services or other support. Alamri asserted that workers who have circumvented the sponsorship system and are employed illegally have opened themselves to the possibility of even greater exploitation in that they have lost the legal protections they otherwise could claim. ¶6. (SBU) Alamri and other officials at the MOM suggest that the abuses of sponsorship likely will continue without systemic change, given overall trends in the labor market and the increase in expatriate workers entering Oman. MOM statistics show that the number of foreign workers - the majority of whom is low-skilled - has risen almost 14% from 2006 to approximately 699,000. While the Philippine Embassy has begun enforcing a new minimum wage of 160 OR/month in all new contracts for domestic workers, contacts say this policy has shifted demand toward cheaper Indian and Indonesian workers, the latter of which have no diplomatic representation in Oman. Alamri complained that his Directorate does not have the necessary capacity to meet the needs of Oman's growing workforce or to combat all the different forms of exploitation, particularly in an individual sponsor's household. - - - - - - - - - - - - A Possible Alternative - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶7. (C) The MOM reportedly is considering alternative systems for bringing foreign workers into the country. Shahswar al Balushi, CEO of the Oman Society for Petroleum Services (OPAL) and informal advisor to Minister of Manpower Juma bin ali al Juma, told poloff that the Minister has asked him to submit a proposal for a phased approach toward ending the sponsorship system and moving toward an open labor market. According to Balushi, OPAL's proposal would replace sponsorship and the loose network of recruitment agencies with government-licensed, for-profit companies listed on the Muscat stock exchange. The companies would recruit foreign workers based on actual market demand, and assume all costs and legal responsibility associated with sponsorship. Employers would hire the workers they need - from maids to upper-level managers - directly from the companies. The government, which under the current system is involved in adjudicating individual applications for sponsorship - a time consuming and resource-intensive commitment - would be free to assume a larger regulatory role. Balushi stated that this market-based proposal represents a more efficient way to meet the country's present and future labor needs, and could help eliminate conditions that contribute to TIP. ¶8. (C) Comment: Most Omanis candidly state that there is insufficient political will at present to change the sponsorship system. OPAL's market-based proposal could provide an opening, but contacts suggest that Juma lacks the influence to champion such a major change on his own. Recent comments against sponsorship from international bodies and other GCC countries (refs B and C),however, may provide some support for reform. Post will look for ways to include discussions of reforms to the sponsorship system in its efforts to combat TIP in Oman. End comment. FONTENEAU