Saudi Arabia does not have legal slaves. Chattel slavery was abolished by royal decree in 1962, and buying or selling a person is a criminal offense under Saudi law. But the question of whether Saudi Arabia has slaves in the practical sense has a different answer: the 2023 Global Slavery Index estimates that roughly 740,000 people in the kingdom live in conditions that meet international definitions of modern slavery, a prevalence of about 21.3 per thousand residents.1Walk Free. Modern Slavery in Saudi Arabia Most are migrant workers held in place by confiscated passports, withheld wages, and a sponsorship system that until recently gave employers near-total control over whether a foreign worker could change jobs or leave the country.
When Saudi Arabia Abolished Slavery
On November 7, 1962, Crown Prince Faisal, then serving as Saudi Premier, issued a royal decree abolishing slavery. The government paid compensation to slave owners and freed an estimated 2,500 people. A revolution had just toppled the monarchy in neighboring Yemen, and Saudi leadership moved quickly to head off similar pressure at home.
Before the decree, domestic and agricultural labor across the Arabian Peninsula had long relied on systems of servitude. Abolition did not produce overnight equality, but it did establish that no person could legally own another inside the kingdom. Every labor law and anti-trafficking statute since traces its authority back to that foundation.
What Modern Slavery Looks Like in Saudi Arabia Today
The gap between abolishing ownership and eliminating forced labor is what the numbers are describing. The Global Slavery Index uses the International Labour Organization’s definition of modern slavery, which covers forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking. By that measure, Saudi Arabia’s prevalence rate is among the highest in the Gulf.1Walk Free. Modern Slavery in Saudi Arabia
The U.S. State Department’s 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report places Saudi Arabia at Tier 2, meaning the government does not fully meet minimum anti-trafficking standards but is making significant efforts toward compliance.2United States Department of State. 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report The State Department’s separate human rights report documents conditions among foreign workers that include withheld wages, excessive hours, passport confiscation, restricted movement, and physical abuse.3United States Department of State. 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Saudi Arabia Those conditions map onto the ILO’s 2025 indicators of forced labor: restriction of movement, retention of identity documents, withholding of wages, deception about working conditions, and abuse of a worker’s vulnerable immigration status.4International Labour Organization. ILO Indicators of Forced Labour – 2025 Revised Edition
Most foreign workers in Saudi Arabia are not in forced-labor situations. But the structural features of the employment system create vulnerability on a scale that international observers consistently flag as serious, and the country hosts roughly 13 million foreign residents.
The Kafala Sponsorship System
The mechanism most responsible for that vulnerability is kafala, the sponsorship system. Under Saudi labor law, every foreign worker must be sponsored by a Saudi employer or individual who secures their residency permit, known as an iqama.5Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. Saudi Labor Law – Royal Decree No. M/51 Historically the sponsor held near-complete control. A worker could not change jobs, leave the country, or transfer to another employer without written consent. The result was a power imbalance so steep that an abusive employer could effectively hold a worker captive by refusing to approve their departure.
The Global Slavery Index describes the kafala system as the primary structural driver of forced labor in Saudi Arabia, noting that employers and recruiters use the threat of visa cancellation to keep workers in poor conditions.1Walk Free. Modern Slavery in Saudi Arabia
What the 2021 Reforms Changed
In March 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development introduced the Labor Reform Initiative. Private-sector foreign workers can now change employers after completing one year of their contract, or at the end of any contract, without needing the sponsor’s consent. Workers who want to leave before the one-year mark can do so with 90 days’ notice. The reforms also let workers request exit and re-entry visas through government platforms like Absher and Qiwa without employer approval. The sponsor receives a notification but can no longer block the request.
These changes apply to millions of workers and are meaningful. Two gaps limit their effect. Enforcement remains uneven, and some employers still resist transfers or retaliate against workers who use the new system. And the reforms exclude domestic workers entirely.
Domestic Workers Have Weaker Protections
Domestic workers are explicitly excluded from the general Labor Law. The limits on working hours, mandatory rest days, restrictions on salary deductions, and access to labor court dispute resolution that apply to other workers do not apply to household staff.5Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. Saudi Labor Law – Royal Decree No. M/51
In 2013, the government issued Resolution No. 310 creating a separate Regulation of Domestic Workers. It guarantees nine hours of daily rest, one weekly day off as agreed in the contract, up to 30 days of paid sick leave per year, and an end-of-service benefit equal to one month’s salary after four consecutive years of employment.6Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. Regulation of Domestic Workers The nine-hour rest provision implicitly allows up to 15 working hours per day, compared with the eight-hour standard day and 48-hour week other workers receive.
Domestic workers also lack independent access to the labor courts. Complaints run through the Musaned recruitment platform or the Ministry’s unified number (19911), and they depend on administrative resolution rather than judicial enforcement. More than three million foreign household workers live under this weaker framework, tied to their individual sponsors.
Passport Confiscation
Confiscating a worker’s passport is illegal under Saudi law. In practice it remains pervasive. The State Department notes that sponsoring employers “usually held foreign workers’ passports,” and the Ministry of Human Resources received over 43,600 worker complaints in a single year, with passport retention ranking among the top grievances alongside unpaid wages and missing contracts.3United States Department of State. 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – Saudi Arabia
Enforcement has been weak. In one reporting period, the Ministry issued just 199 notices to employers who had confiscated passports, and only eight of those employers received formal violations for continued noncompliance.7U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia. 2023 TIP Report Release – Saudi Arabia When a worker’s passport sits in their employer’s desk, the legal right to change jobs or request an exit visa becomes theoretical. The ILO treats document retention as one of the clearest indicators of forced labor precisely because it renders the victim unable to leave.4International Labour Organization. ILO Indicators of Forced Labour – 2025 Revised Edition
The Huroob System
Employers must report a sponsored foreign worker who leaves their job without authorization. The report places the worker in huroob status, an Arabic term meaning someone who has fled. A worker flagged as huroob becomes an illegal resident, subject to arrest during routine police checks, fines of up to SAR 2,000, a ban on future employment, and deportation.
Employers routinely weaponize the system. A worker who complains about unpaid wages or abusive conditions can be reported as an absconder before they reach a government office. Once flagged, the worker loses legal standing and becomes subject to detention and removal, which discourages complaints in the first place. Labor rights organizations describe huroob as one of the key tools that let employers maintain extreme control over workers even after the 2021 kafala reforms.
Recent changes have tried to address false reports. Employers who file fraudulent huroob claims can face fines of up to SAR 20,000 and a ban on recruiting domestic workers for up to three years, with penalties doubled for repeat offenses. If the employer cancels the report within two weeks, it can be cleared from the worker’s record. Many workers never learn they have been reported until they are stopped at a checkpoint, by which point the window has closed.
What the Law Does on Paper
The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law, enacted through Royal Decree No. M/40 in 2009, is the main criminal statute. It prohibits recruiting, transporting, or harboring people for forced labor, sexual exploitation, servitude, or practices resembling slavery. A conviction carries up to 15 years in prison, a fine of up to one million Saudi Riyals (about $266,000), or both. Penalties increase when the crime involves a child, a woman, a person with a disability, an organized crime group, or when the perpetrator holds authority over the victim. A company found to have knowingly facilitated trafficking can be fined up to ten million Riyals and ordered closed.8United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law
The Wage Protection System is where enforcement has genuine teeth. Private-sector employers must pay workers through Saudi bank accounts, creating a verifiable electronic record. Late wages trigger a fine of SAR 3,000 per affected worker, recurring monthly until paid. After two months of noncompliance the Ministry starts freezing the employer’s access to electronic government services; after three months all services are frozen and workers can transfer to a new employer without any consent from the delinquent company.9Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. Wage Protection The system does not extend to domestic workers in individual households, where wage theft is most difficult to detect and most commonly reported.
The Bottom Line
Saudi Arabia does not have legal slavery. No one can lawfully buy or sell another person, and the criminal penalties for trafficking are substantial. The Wage Protection System and the 2021 Labor Reform Initiative represent real progress. But of the roughly 13 million foreign residents in the country, many work in conditions that satisfy the ILO’s definition of forced labor: confiscated passports, withheld wages, restricted movement, and the ever-present threat of being reported as an absconder if they resist. Whether you call those conditions slavery depends on the definition you use. By the standards the international community applies today, the practice persists in everything but name.