kafala en · NOUN
Etymology
Borrowed from Arabic كَفَالَة (kafāla).
Meanings
- (uncountable) A form of Islamic adoption in which the child is not regarded as a true child of the adoptive parents.
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(uncountable) A sponsorship system in the Middle East, used to monitor migrant labourers, mostly in the construction and domestic sectors.
Officials in Qatar have said that companies building World Cup stadiums will be held to higher standards of worker treatment, and proposed changes to the kafala system are undergoing legislative review.
2015 July 15, Barry Meier, “Labor Scrutiny for FIFA as a World Cup Rises in the Desert”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 19 Jul 2015: