‘Trapped’ illegal workers in Saudi look to virus for escape

by Anuj Chopra

Jobless and broke, Sudanese electrician Hatem is stranded in limbo in Riyadh like countless other illegal workers, but he hopes the fast-spreading coronavirus will offer a chance for escape.

While coronavirus drives a huge exodus of expatriates, campaigners say potentially hundreds of thousands of illegal workers remain stranded in Saudi Arabia, complicating efforts to fight the disease.

The pandemic has laid bare what activists call systemic injustices roiling the lives of blue-collar foreign workers in Saudi Arabia — overcrowded housing, exploitative employers and a lack of effective recourse.

Campaigners have called on Saudi Arabia to reform its long-criticised labour policy and offer an amnesty to poor debt-ridden workers trapped in the country, a predicament that risks fuelling the pandemic.

The problem is rooted in the “kafala” sponsorship system, described by critics as a modern form of slavery that binds workers to their Saudi employers, whose permission is required to enter and exit the kingdom as well as to change jobs.

Employers also hold enough sway to render their status illegal, according to activists and interviews with four undocumented workers, including Hatem, a 45-year-old electrician living in hiding in Riyadh to avoid arrest.

“My six kids, my old mother, my sister in Sudan… are living in a difficult situation, but I live in much worse conditions,” Hatem told AFP in his squalid Riyadh apartment, which he shares with other workers.

“The sponsorship system is very unjust,” said Hatem, who arrived in 2016. (AFP)

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