Alwaght- On Monday, Nepal's Labor Minister, Bahadur Gurung urged Qatar to remove a sponsorship scheme which prevents the free movement of migrant workers, calling it a violation of the rights of thousands of its nationals who are working in the Persian Gulf Arab country.
By criticizing this scheme, human rights groups and trade unions have likened it to a form of modern day slavery.
In many cases, employers take workers' passports to keep them there or extort a large fee before allowing them to leave. Accordingly, the South Asia workers should seek permission from employers to change even their jobs.
"From the human rights point of view of the workers, I think the KAFALA system should be abolished ... workers should be allowed to return or change their jobs if they want to," Labour Minister Tek Bahadur Gurung told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
More than 400,000 Nepalis work as laborers in Qatar including in the construction of football Stadia for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Reuters reported.
However, in recent years, human rights groups have made frequent allegations of abuse stemming from the KAFALA system.
In 2013, Nepal recalled its ambassador in Doha after the envoy called Qatar an "open jail" for its workers, Reuters reported.
