Naveed Yaseen replied on Wednesday, December 10, 2008 01:05 AM
To answer specifically, no it doesn't happen in west, or US at least. Even the H1-B or seasonal workers, officially obliged to work for their sponsors only, retain their passports.
If some employer demands to keep passport with him, one should avoid working for such employer for reasons other than passport being withheld. However if one has to work or is already working for such employer, one can recover passport whenever one feels like to do so. Even if passport was agreed as a 'security deposit'. That is because agreements violating fundamental human rights are not honored in courts of law.
On gulf governance norms, I feel very much like what 'Analyst 1' said. Besides many arguable laws and norms, some are just stark naked against principles of natural justice, like,,,
- to deny citizenship by birth
- to restrict women's employment and judicial rights
- to restrict judicial rights of aliens
- to execute on presumption that possession of narcotics is always willful
- to execute minors on presumption they can judge accurately and cannot be exploited emotionally
- to persecute for asking accountability from rulers, let alone asking legitimacy |
