India remains the world’s largest source of international migrants, with nearly 18 million Indians living abroad—many of them in the Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia. In 2024 alone, India received over $129 billion in remittances, much of it from Gulf nations. The migration corridor between India and Saudi Arabia ranks among the top 10 globally, reflecting decades of labour mobility between the two countries.
This movement began when workers from Kerala first sailed to the Arabian Peninsula, followed by migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar after the oil boom of the 1970s. Steady jobs, better wages, and fewer emigration barriers compared with Western nations made Saudi Arabia a key destination. Today, Indian men dominate construction, retail, and hospitality, while many Indian women work as domestic workers. Yet the human cost has been staggering: over 14,000 Indian workers have died in Saudi Arabia since 2016, according to government data. For years, thousands of Indian workers have faced exploitation, restrictive contracts, and poor living conditions under the kafala (sponsorship) system, which tied employees to their employers and limited their basic rights, including freedom of movement. As Saudi Arabia moves to reform or end this system, the question remains: will these changes truly transform the lives of migrant workers?
Historical perspective of kafala system
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has officially dismantled its decades-old kafala (sponsorship) system, following similar reforms introduced by Bahrain in 2009 and Qatar in 2020. The kafala system, long criticised for granting employers sweeping control over migrant workers’ mobility and legal status, has been replaced by a more transparent, contract-based employment framework. This landmark reform, effective from June 2025, is set to impact the lives of nearly 13 million migrant workers, including about 2.6 million Indians residing in the Kingdom. Between 2021 and 2024, India issued nearly 12 lakh Emigration Clearances for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, with 5.63 lakh—47 per cent—for Saudi Arabia alone, according to government data provided to the Lok Sabha.
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The word kafala originates from the Arabic root Ka Fa La, meaning “to guarantee, vouch for, or take responsibility for”. The system was introduced in the 1950s during the oil boom to manage the influx of foreign labour for infrastructure projects. Traditionally, the kafala system emerged from the Bedouin principle of hospitality, where hosts took moral and social responsibility for the well-being and conduct of their foreign guests. It was an arrangement that symbolised trust, protection, and mutual respect between host and guest. Over the decades the essence of kafala has been distorted. What began as a cultural practice of guardianship has evolved into an instrument of labour control across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Today, the kafala system ties a migrant worker’s legal status and residency directly to their employer, or kafil, effectively granting the sponsor absolute authority over the worker’s movement and employment. Under this arrangement, workers cannot change jobs or leave the country without the sponsor’s consent. This dependency traps millions of domestic workers in a cycle of vulnerability. Reports of low wages, excessive working hours, and physical or psychological abuse are common.
According to Walk Free, workers reportedly work up to 84 hours a week, though Saudi law caps legal working hours, including overtime, at 60 hours. Domestic workers were often excluded from labour laws, as their work was not legally recognised, rendering them part of an “invisible workforce” hidden within households and beyond the reach of regulation. As Gulf economies continue to rely heavily on migrant labour, the challenge lies in transforming the kafala framework from one of control to one of dignity and rights and restoring its original spirit of responsibility and humane treatment.
What prompted Saudi Arabia to finally end the kafala system?
The abolition of the kafala system in Saudi Arabia aligns closely with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, a comprehensive reform agenda designed to transform the Kingdom into a diversified, modern, and globally competitive economy. Central to this vision is the goal of reducing dependence on oil revenues, expanding private sector participation, and building a more efficient, transparent, and inclusive labour market. Ending the kafala system marks a pivotal step in this direction, addressing one of the most widely criticised aspects of Saudi Arabia’s labour governance and improving the working conditions for millions of migrant workers who are the backbone of the Saudi economy. Foreign workers comprise about 42 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s workforce, according to the country’s labour statistics.
A view of the turf laid out at Lusail Stadium in Qatar, ahead of the host the FIFA World Cup final in December 2022.
| Photo Credit:
AFP
Beyond economic considerations, the reform also reflects the Kingdom’s broader ambition to enhance its record in human rights. For instance, Saudi Arabia is ranked 155th out of 165 countries in the Human Freedom Index and 102nd in the Global Peace Index. Despite enjoying a high per capita GDP of over $35,000, Saudi Arabia ranks poorly on the Human Freedom Index, highlighting a stark disparity between economic prosperity and personal freedom. This imbalance underscores why reforming the kafala (sponsorship) system became essential. Additionally, Saudi Arabia was awarded hosting rights for the 2034 FIFA World Cup in December 2024, intensifying international scrutiny of worker protections. The deaths of thousands of migrant workers during preparations for Qatar’s 2022 World Cup have made labour rights a central concern for future mega-events in the region. By introducing greater transparency, worker mobility, and legal protections, Saudi Arabia aims to project itself as a forward-looking state committed to human rights and institutional reform in line with Vision 2030.
What it means for Indian migrants
The dismantling of the kafala system essentially decouples employment and visa status. This allows migrants to lodge complaints against their employers without the risk of being deported. Thus, it brings greater transparency, legal safeguards, and the right to change employers without affecting residency status. With employment contracts now recorded and accessible through government portals, the risk of contract substitution and exploitation is expected to decline.
The reform is expected to ease many of the legal hurdles for domestic helpers who have long struggled within Saudi Arabia. The reform aims to boost accountability, speed up complaint procedures, and make the pursuit of justice more accessible for those who have often remained without redress. For comparison, Qatar’s reforms, implemented in September 2020, have allowed around 3,50,000 workers to change jobs, according to the International Labour Organization, demonstrating the potential impact of such changes.
The dismantling of the kafala system offers hope for ending the exploitative relations that have long defined the lives of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, such as undefined hours of work, no days off, non-payment of wages, and psychological, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Human Rights Watch documented cases where at least 850 workers from a single company went unpaid for up to eight months in 2025, highlighting the scale of wage theft that reforms must address.
Implementation gaps and concerns
The implementation gap lies in the disconnect between policy reform and everyday reality.. According to data from the Indian embassy in Riyadh, 74 per cent of the 1,420 Indian migrant worker deaths recorded in 2023 alone were attributed to “natural causes”. Human Rights Watch has documented that many deaths involving workplace accidents—including electrocution, falls from buildings, and machinery-related incidents—are misclassified as natural deaths. This classification shields employers from accountability and denies families proper compensation.
Indian labourers at the construction site of a building in Riyadh, on November 16, 2014.
| Photo Credit:
Faisal Al Nasser/REUTERS
The compensation process itself presents formidable barriers. One widow interviewed by Human Rights Watch waited 15 years to receive compensation from the General Organization for Social Insurance for her brother’s death. The process requires navigating multiple offices, burdensome paperwork, and often depends on intervention by social workers or embassy officials. Without such support, many families abandon their claims entirely.
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Moreover, the reforms exclude an estimated 3.6 million migrant workers—mostly domestic workers and agricultural labourers—who remain the most vulnerable and least protected, according to Wilson Center research. These workers, predominantly women, continue to work outside the purview of Saudi labour law.
What lies ahead?
The abolition of the kafala system is undoubtedly a landmark reform. However, Indian migrant workers will need to adapt to a new system of seeking visas and work contracts. The move to a contract-based employment system requires greater awareness and familiarity with new legal procedures. However, most Indian migrant workers belong to the low and semi-skilled categories, many of whom lack the necessary understanding to navigate these changes effectively.
Greater transparency in Saudi Arabia’s labour market is likely to attract workers from diverse regions, intensifying competition for jobs across sectors. However, this influx may also lead to skill mismatches, limiting employment opportunities for certain groups. At the same time, employers eager to cut labour costs may increasingly rely on temporary or short-term contracts, potentially undermining job security for many workers in the Kingdom.
The upcoming 2034 FIFA World Cup will test the effectiveness of these reforms. The tournament will require massive infrastructure development, likely drawing hundreds of thousands of additional migrant workers to the Kingdom. Whether Saudi Arabia can protect these workers better than Qatar did for the 2022 World Cup—where thousands of South Asian workers died—will determine if these reforms represent genuine change or merely cosmetic adjustments to deflect international criticism.
Md Imran Khan is an Assistant Professor at the New Delhi Institute of Management. His work explores international labour migration, remittance economies, and inclusive development.