The National Human Rights Society (NHRS) has proposed the establishment of a government body to organize the affairs of foreign workers in the Kingdom. The NHRS has also proposed that the powers of the Labor Ministry and Passport Department relating to foreign workers be transferred to the new organization. Apart from this, the NHRS asked for enforcement of the government decision abolishing the term “sponsor and “sponsorship” and also stressed that the contract and law should govern the relationship between the employer and employee. These proposals came in the study carried out by the NHRS on improving the working environment of foreign workers in the Kingdom. The society has already handed over the study to the concerned authorities at the Ministries of Interior and Labor, Al-Madina daily said. The study recommends certain procedures to abolish the rules defining sponsorship. They include an end to the practice of the employer holding passports of expatriate workers, doing away with no objection letters, allowing a foreign worker to bring his family to the Kingdom, employer's consent to process Haj permit, marriage and family visits besides all terms restricting the employees' freedom. The study demanded cancellation of all the rules of the sponsorship and the powers it bestows on the employers. The study also proposed the introduction of an obligatory insurance policy to guarantee the financial rights of either party. Meanwhile, Dr. Zuhair Al-Harithy, spokesman of the Human Rights Commission, a government body, has said his organization has called for the formation of a labor union in the Kingdom. Al-Harithy pointed out that the Commission stressed the need for the creation of a union to protect the workers' rights. “The union serves as a peaceful method and cultural tool for dealing with the rights of workers,” he said. __
