The Kuwaiti Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, Mohammad Al-Kandari, recently announced that foreign workers who own business (such as carpenters, blacksmiths, tanker drivers, barbers) will not need a Kuwaiti sponsor anymore; instead, they'll become their own sponsors. Al-Kandari added that this change is part of an effort to find alternatives to the sponsorship system in the emirate. As we've previously reported, the Kuwaiti government is considering abolishing the current sponsorship system.

This is a positive and promising step forward, but it does not mean that discrimination against foreign workers in Kuwait will end. Migrant workers across the region need to have strong legal support, which they currently don't have.