Crackdown on Asian labour

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA (BAHRAIN), MAY 30. A crackdown on what are described here as `free visa holders' and housewives working without employment visas has created havoc among the Asian expatriate community in this island nation. The drive against this category of labour is ostensibly intended to open up the labour market for the large numbers of unemployed Bahraini nationals. However, as some members of Bahrain's legislative body the Shoora Council have pointed out, Bahrainis are not going to fill the jobs this category of Asian expatriates currently does and no similar drive is being carried out against Western expatriates who work in violation of their visa stipulations even though they currently fill posts that Bahrainis do aspire for.

There certainly is an unemployment problem in Bahrain. According to very recent estimates about 30,000 Bahrainis or 20 per cent of the active population out of a total citizenry of about 650,000 are unemployed. Under an on-going drive to liberalise the polity and economy of the island, the Government has taken several initiatives to open up the labour market for Bahraini nationals. This includes the reserving of jobs in the police and security services for Bahrainis, the encouragement of employers to take in increasing numbers of nationals into their establishments, special training and education programmes etc. The drive against `free visa holders' and housewives doing remunerative jobs though prohibited from doing so by the terms of their visa is supposedly a part of these exercises.

A `free visa holder' is basically a person working for someone other than the person who obtained the entry and residence permits for him and is registered as his employer in the relevant documents. There are cases where an employer cannot provide work for the expatriate he has been allowed to bring into the country. A case in point is the situation with a large collapsing construction company here that is unable to provide work, and is therefore denying wages, to hundreds of its employees. Workers in such a situation try and find work where they can. A far larger category of `free visa' workers find themselves in a totally uncertain situation right from the outset.

Numbers of Bahraini nationals have obtained permission over the years to bring workers into the country though they, and presumably the relevant authorities know, that they are in no position to provide the expatriate with remunerative employment. These visas are sold to needy expatriates by the Bahrainis (the current rate is about dinars 700 (approximately Rs. 70,000). Once inside the country the expatriate on a such a `free visa' is left to find what work he can. Most `free visa holders' are in jobs categorised as unskilled assistants in the shops and main market, loaders, construction workers, waiters, housemaids and house- boys, car cleaners, road-side hawkers and a whole host of other odd jobs besides.

Other than as assistants in shops, restaurants or hotels these are not jobs that Bahrainis will ever perform. On the other side of the coin many of those who currently employ such `free visa holders' have not been given permission to recruit expatriates on their own sponsorship though they have tried time and again. Thirdly, as member of the Shoora Council, Dr. Hilal al Shaiji pointed out, these `free visa holders' were after all allowed to enter the country legally in the first place. It would have been far more fair to allow them the chance to regularise their employment with their current employers by the transfer of sponsorship. Labour market fluctuations will after all always create conditions where a person has to switch employment.

It is not just the crackdown on the `free visa holders' that creates the problem but also the manner of it. Special teams, composed of the local Labour and Interior Ministry personnel, have been making the rounds taking into custody (with the intention of eventually deporting) those who were not seen to be at the place where they were supposed to be employed.

People cleaning cars in the early mornings, or working in shops etc. without permits, were obviously working in situations where they were not permitted. But most of the `free visa holders' are now afraid of travelling by buses or sitting outside their residences for fear that they will be rounded up. How can any inspection team decide that a person is working for someone other than his/her sponsor merely because he/she was travelling on a bus or residing apart from the residence of the sponsor.

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Section  : International
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