Daily Star 080212
Il ministro del Lavoro saudita appoggia il limite al permesso di residenza per i lavoratori immigrati
● I lavoratori immigrati nel Golfo sono 13 mn., circa il 37% dei 35 mn. di abitanti dei paesi del Consiglio della Cooperazione del Golfo (CCG).
● Il ministro del Lavoro saudita è per la limitazione del permesso di residenza per questi immigrati,
o Per non rischiare che acquisiscano diritti di espressione politica con il diritto di voto, anche sotto pressione internazionale.
– Il ministro del Laovoro di Bahrain si è detto per un limite di 6 anni del permesso di residenza .
L’associazione saudita per i diritti umani National Human Rights Society chiede l’eliminazione entro 3 anni del sistema di controllo per gli immigrati, un sistema vigente nei paesi del CCG denunciato come schiavistico dalle organizzazioni umanitarie, e consistente in una serie di regolamenti che limitano la loro libertà di movimento e li sottopone all’arbitrio dei loro datori di lavoro.
Daily Star 080212
Saudi labor minister endorses residency caps on foreign workers
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s labor minister said Riyadh supports a residency limit on the millions of foreign workers in the Gulf to prevent them from gaining a political voice, in remarks published on Monday. "We do not want the day to come when we are forced to allow the [foreign] workers to be represented in our parliaments or municipal councils," Ghazi al-Gosaibi told the economic daily Al-Eqtisadiah.
– He said he feared international pressure would in the future force states in the region to enfranchise expatriate workers.
– Foreign workers make up about 13 million or 37 percent of the 35 million population of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), of which Saudi Arabia is a member.
Gosaibi did not specify how long expatriate workers should be allowed to work in the GCC.
– But Bahraini Labor Minister Majeed al-Alawi said in an interview last year that he supported a six-year residency cap, fearing expatriate workers were eroding the national character of states in the Gulf.
– In a related development, Al-Watan newspaper reported that the National Human Rights Society in Saudi Arabia expects the heavily-criticized sponsorship system for migrant workers to be abolished within three years.
The system, a set of regulations that limits workers’ movements and puts them at the mercy of their employers, is in place in the GCC states but has been decried by rights bodies as akin to slavery. – AFP