Kafala System and Its Impact on Migrant Laborers in Benyamin Daniel's Goat Days

An - Najah Univ. J. Res. (Humanities). Vol. 30(10), 2016

20 Pages Posted: 1 Oct 2016

See all articles by Isam M Shihada

Isam M Shihada

Al-Aqsa University; Department of English Al Aqsa University

Date Written: September 29, 2016

Abstract

In this paper, we try to examine the mistreatment, enslavement, forced labor, violence, and persecution meted out against Indian migrant laborers in Saudi Arabia. We also attempt to explain the Kafala system of sponsorship, its mechanism, and how migrant laborers like the protagonist of Benyamin’s Goat Days, Najeeb Muhammad, become victims in such a system. This study sheds light not only on Najeeb’s dehumanizing confinement, fear, mental agony, and physical torture but also on his resistance and rebellion against his own enslavement. It concludes that the story of Najeeb underscores the pressing need for the government of Saudi Arabia to reform the Kafala sponsorship system to prevent the exploitation of vulnerable migrant laborers and to ensure decent, safe working and living conditions for them. These reforms should be enforced by monitoring sponsors who would ensure that violators are persecuted. It is also an obligation shared by the migrant laborers’ sending countries which should create awareness among migrant laborers about the working conditions laws, benefits and rights expected in the Gulf States to avoid persecution and slavery like Najeeb. This study concludes that Najeeb’s narrative of slavery in Saudi Arabia harms its image and holy status as an enlightening minaret of Islam and its loving and peaceful religious teachings that do not permit slavery, oppression, exploitation and humiliation.

Note: Downloadable document is in English and Arabic.

Keywords: Goat Days, Benyamin Daniel, Migrant Laborers, Kafala System, slavery

JEL Classification: An - Najah Univ. J. Res. (Humanities). Vol. 30(10), 2016

Suggested Citation

Shihada, Isam M and Shihada, Isam M, Kafala System and Its Impact on Migrant Laborers in Benyamin Daniel's Goat Days (September 29, 2016). An - Najah Univ. J. Res. (Humanities). Vol. 30(10), 2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2845509

Isam M Shihada (Contact Author)

Department of English Al Aqsa University

Al-Aqsa University

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