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Reports of employers holding migrant workers’ passports are commonplace in Gulf countries. Retailers and brands, as well as human rights activists (eg Human Rights Watch) consider this to be bonded labour, but the practice is widespread in construction and manufacturing sectors.

Employers come up with a range of excuses for retaining passports. We’ve heard ‘just keeping them safe’, ‘workers don’t understand the value of their passport’ and ‘it’s to stop them from running off with company property’.  But the fact of the matter is, as numerous employers admit privately, retaining passports is a very effective way of retaining labour. Employers have laid out large sums for transport, agency fees and training, and are not keen to let this investment go too easily.  Under pressure from auditors, customers and campaigners, many employers have come up with a system which claims to allow workers to retrieve their passport within half an hour. It is not clear whether this really works in practice when someone wants to leave their job.

But, under UAE Federal law, retaining passports, even if they can be easily retrieved, is illegal. The decree (see above picture in Arabic) issued by the Ministry of Interior on 25^th December 2002 and states:  

“As the passport is a personal document that and as the law obliges its owner to keep and show when required by the governmental authorities, it is not allowed for any party to detain the passport except by the official parties with a judicial order and according to the law. Consequently it will be considered as an illegal action to detain the passport in UAE except by the governmental parties. So please announce this to all of your parties. In case of retaining passports there will be a suitable punishment by the law of UAE”.

This seems pretty clear to me.

But, there are no examples or reports of the Ministry of Labour enforcing the decree. In fact, some companies report that the first thing the Ministry’s labour inspectors ask for when they visit a site or factory is the original passport of every worker present!

To confuse matters further, the regulations in some of the free zones (e.g. Saif Zone) require employers to retain migrant workers’ passports – a clear conflict with Federal law.  

Our view is that retaining a worker’s passport amounts to bonded labour. Companies, employers and governments need to act to end this practice.

• Employers must find ways to retain their workforce through more positive measures. These include managing workers’ expectations in source countries so that they have a clear idea of their terms and conditions and the environment they will be living and working in, and ensuring that workers are able to raise and resolve concerns and grievances on an ongoing basis.
• Employers should give workers access to an individual safety deposit boxes in which to store their passport. Workers should hold the key at all times.
• Companies sourcing from UAE should exercise zero tolerance on this issue, and should not allow employers to operate a ‘documents returned within 30 minutes’ policy.
• The Ministry of Labour should publicise the 2002 decree and start enforcing it.
• The government should bring free zone regulations in line with Federal Law.

Hi,
I find this article very interesting. It makes me think further whether to what extent this can be
applicable in Thailand where migrant workers’original docs are always retained by employers with similar excuses. A difference I can see is the Thai Labor Law has no provisions regarding the retaining of employees’ original documents.
Why? Someone explains to me this is because Thailand hasn’t ratified ILO Convention on Forced Labour (C29 and C105.
Therefore, in terms of workplace assessment in Thailand’s context, I think we need to cite retailers or brands’ Codes of Conducts or Ethical Standards to make employers comply. What’s ridiculous is some Brand representatives try not to touch on this issue simply because it’s not illegal against the local law. In fact, this is non-compliance subject to Brands’ ethical standards, and the problem of retaining workers’ original docs and/or work permit do exist.

[...] Impactt – “Give me back my Passport” dated July 22, 2009 [...]

Fascinating

hi! can u give me an idea, because presently my employer wants to keep my passport with them. In this how can i refuse then taking my passport. thanks

hi! can u give me an idea, because presently my employer wants to keep my passport with them. In this how can i refuse them taking my passport. thanks

It is funny, because unfortunately some US employers retaining the passports of their employees in US too. :-(

i am citizen of india and i got married witha nepali hence i had both indian and nepal passport and now my indian passport is retained with indian immigration office how can i get back my indian passport am ready to return nepal passport.