I’ve always wondered, what does “holding a passport” entail? Can’t you just go to your embassy and make a new passport as if you’ve lost the old one? How can some other guy holding your documents make you a slave unable to leave if you want?
Another poster in this thread suggested¹ that there must be some degree of collusion with the migrant worker’s home state(s) for this practice to be widespread.
It’s possible that if they try to obtain a new password from their embassy or consul that they’re told they should retrieve their original one from their “employer”. They may have to prove it was lost or stolen by filling out an official police form – which would likely be a criminal offence if done so knowing that the passport was not lost. This is all conjecture: I’m imagining how there could be rules that appear to be fair on the surface but are actually enforced in such a way as to unfairly restrict the human rights/freedom of the worker.
