You Must Keep Your Passport! Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar

For Filipinos and many countries abroad, the passport serves as one of the main requirement to travel across countries. Once you have it, this should remain in your possession without further explanation.

There are already a lot of issues, especially to OFW’s, involving the employer and employee as to who will hold their employees passport. But actually, there’s no question to that. A passport should be in the possession of the person whose name and image is attached to it.

Sadly, this rule is not practiced by all employers especially with OFWs working in Middle East countries.

OMAN

“It is illegal to keep the passport of the employee as it is a personal document and legally, the property of the government issuing it. In Oman, normally a passport is handed over by the expat only to get a residence visa stamped on it and as per the rules, it should be returned after the stamping.”

– Moath Al Ghilani, an Omani lawyer

SAUDI ARABIA

The Labor Ministry has reiterated that it is the right of foreign workers to keep their passports and official documents.
“Anybody violating this rule will face serious penalties,” said Taysir Al-Mofraj, the ministry’s spokesman.
– Arab News 

KUWAIT

“Companies in Kuwait will no longer be allowed to withhold employees’ passports under new labour laws being written, according to Arabic daily Al Shahed. A draft resolution is expected to be submitted to the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Minister of Planning and Development Hind Al- Subaih before the end of this month, the daily said, quoting ministry sources.”
– Arabian Business 

“It [new law on domestic helpers] prohibits employers from confiscating workers’ passports, a common abuse, but fails to specify penalties.”
– Human Rights Watch

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