Nepalese government official to address 'kafala' system in WMU talk

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—The sponsorship system known as kafala, effectively a modern-day form of slavery practiced in various Gulf and Middle East Islamic states, will be examined when a leading government official from Nepal visits the Western Michigan University campus this month.

Krishna H. Pushkar, joint secretary of the government of Nepal, will speak at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21, in Room 1028 of Brown Hall. His presentation, titled "World Cup Soccer on the Migrant's Grave: The Modern Kafala Slavery System," is free and open to the public.

Krishna H. Pushkar

Kafala is practiced in such countries as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. Migrant workers are the main victims and are excluded from national labor laws, which allows employers to use them for "4D jobs"—dry, dirty, dangerous and difficult—without basic human and economic protections.

Pushkar's talk, presented by the WMU Institute of Government and Politics and the Department of Political Science, will emphasize Qatar's use of kafala workers to build its infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup. Estimates are that 500 kafala workers have already died on world cup sites and that 4,000 will die by the time the project is completed. The talk includes recommendations for mitigating the problem and fighting kafala at the global level.

Pushkar is a Fulbright Hubert Humphrey Fellow at Michigan State University. He has held several top governmental positions, including director general in the Department of Labour and chief district officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs. He has also worked in the Office of Foreign Affairs and has represented the Nepalese government in several bilateral and multilateral international forums.

Pushkar has expertise in such areas as labor migration, trafficking control, conflict management, security and diplomatic dealings.

For more information, contact Dr. Peter Wielhouwer, director of the Institute of Government and Politics, at (269) 387-5685 or peter.wielhouwer@wmich.edu.

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