Passport to slavery
It is a very common practice in Bahrain and the Gulf for the passport and travel documents of migrant workers to be confiscated and withheld by their employers/sponsors. Unsuspecting migrant workers hand over their documents as they are not aware of their rights; employers and sponsors often use this collateral to bully, abuse and hold the workers hostage.
The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights released a report today about the tragic effects that this practice continues to have on migrant workers in Bahrain. The report provides a very good overview of the different aspects of passport-withholding, using the examples of a few individual cases. Most notable however is the excellent set of recommendations at the end of the report, aimed towards the Bahraini authorities, the foreign embassies as well as local civil societies. Among the recommendations are:
To the Bahraini authorities:
F. Laws and regulations that protect the sponsor should be established, so sponsors do not need to hold the passport, providing that these laws and regulations do not restrict the freedoms of the migrant workers to move and their right to keep their travel documents.
To the embassies that represent the migrant workers:
B. Prior to their traveling to their destination country, Migrant Workers, specially women, should be informed about working conditions and their rights and duties according to the domestic law, and international standards.
D. To hold accountable their fellow citizens who work with rented commercial registration or with local recruiting agents or as sponsor who are found to violate the rights of these workers.
To civil societies:
A. The rights of migrant workers are part of human rights and rights of national workers which can not be separated. Hence, local trade unions, as well as rights and women societies and organizations, should take the responsibility to equally defend these workers.
This last recommendation is particularly noteworthy as this is exactly the type of thing that we’ve been discussing lately on this blog.
You can read the full report by clicking this link. Strongly recommended.
September 27th, 2005 at 6:59 am
Thanks Chanad. I hope something is enabled along the lines of the recommendation
September 27th, 2005 at 7:02 am
PS- is there anywhere to email for those of us living outside the US concerning this report and expressing support for these investigations, etc?
September 27th, 2005 at 8:47 am
From the GDN this morning:
13,000 runaways!
MANAMA: Cases of 13,000 runaway workers have been officially registered with the Labour Ministry, it was revealed yesterday.
Details of the cases are currently being analysed by the Labour Ministry using a new electronic system, said Labour Ministry labour relations director Shaikh Ali bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa. “We are now working in close co-ordination with the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence to bring this problem under control,” he revealed.
“We shall soon introduce new plans to stop expatriates working illegally and to punish companies which employ runaway workers. “Details of the plans will be revealed very soon.”
http://gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=122974&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=28191
Yes, I agree that the GDN is not the most credible paper, but even if the figure quoted is exagerated 2- or 3- fold… you will agree that this is a problem that cannot be solved just by blaming the employers. When employers are fined for their runaway workers, through no fault of their own, you would expect that employers would protect themselves, and the only thing open to them really is keeping their employees’ passports.
The bad thing is however if that passport is demanded for any reason by the employee (having to leave the island on an emergency basis etc) and it is not given, then I would call this blackmail.
There are rules and laws that must be fixed to protect the employer rather than penalise them for being victims! And in a lot of these cases they are in fact victims.
September 27th, 2005 at 10:31 am
I think this issue needs to be tackled in order to correct some concepts and raise the sponsors’ awareness of the consequences of their practices. I also think that the government goes in this direction to eliminate these unacceptable practices.
September 27th, 2005 at 8:36 pm
The problem in Bahrain is that every foreigner must be sponsored by a citizen in order to be allowed to work. And that has led to a lot of problems including blackmail. This can only be solved if our dear MPs issue a law banning Bahrainis from sponsoring foreigners and instead issue a law that allows the immigration department to issue visas to those who have a job or sufficient funds in order to stay in the country. By this type of system the foreigners will not have the problem of being blackmailed and it will end the misery of many.
September 27th, 2005 at 8:42 pm
The Centre would be a lot more credible discussing the plight of immigrants if it wasn’t alone in its silence on last March’s race riots or Murthader Bader’s call for racial segregation in Manama.
This report’s very neat in that it doesn’t draw attention to this sort of thing but allows the Centre to bash the Islamists’ favourite targets: women’s rights activists, trade unionists and the government.
When it comes to taking bold measures to address the situation faced by blue collar immigrants, Khawaja’s standing alongside the most exploitative of bosses in opposing the McKinsey reforms of the labour market to equalise wages. Typical of the Centre’s opportunism to have Khawaja providing moral balast for Bahrain’s worst businessemen while at the same time presenting this report.
September 27th, 2005 at 10:56 pm
Mahmood, you are exactly right that blaming the employers alone is not a solution. That is why I was very pleased that one of the recommendations in this report is to create some form of legislation to protect the sponsors, so that there will be no need to confiscate passports.
What will be the nature of that legislation? I don’t know… maybe something like what Bugs has suggested above. Given that the issue of runaway workers is such a big problem, I would have hoped that the business community would have been at the very forefront of the demands to create better legislation to allow them to protect their interests without needing to illegally confiscate passports.
I do admit though that it is hard to come up with legislation that would fully guarantee the interests of the employers. But at the end of the day hiring someone — anyone — always carries a risk (especially if you’re paying him/her a quarter of the wages that a Bahraini might recieve, and if you you’re housing him in an awful labour camp, and if you know that he/she comes from a desperately poor home). So what can a concerned employer do to minimize the risk of a runaway workers?:
1) Be more stringent about who is employed. Instead of hiring foreign workers, en masse, conduct interviews, demand to see qualifications, learn about their background, etc etc
2) Create positive (and LEGAL) incentives to help retain workers (i.e. higher salary, good living conditions, etc)
3) If the above two options are not feasible, then the last option is DON’T HIRE expat workers.
The bottom line is that there will always be the risk of workers leaving their jobs,… but this risk alone can not justify the denial of their fundamental rights.
Scorpio: You really need to get over this Murtadha Bader thing. Yes, what he said was absolutely racist and bigoted… but all he did was say it. We read about it in the press one day, and then we never heard about the idea again. On the other hand there are some fundamental violations of human rights in Bahrain that have been HAPPENING for decades and CONTINUE to happen… yet those violators remain in positions of power because we remain silent about it. Murtadha Bader presented a racist idea that never saw the light of day… but there are others who have for decades been COMMITTING acts of racism, let alone other violations in the past of torture, killing, deportation of citizens, detention without trial, corruption and nepotism in public office, illegal land-grabbing, the rape of maids, withholding salaries of workers, issuing thousands of illegal “free visas”, visciously beating protesters, arrests of people who want to submit a petition, arrests of website moderators…. etc etc etc. Yet most of the people who have committed these crimes have never been held accountable… in fact many of them still hold positions of power to this very day. (Did you by any chance read in this morning’s paper who has been appointed as “Premier’s Court advisor for security affairs with the rank of minister” ??)
Now, would I have wanted the BCHR to issue a public comdemnation of Bader? Of course. Would I have wanted Al Wefaq to have sacked him for his statements? Yes. But I’m not losing sleep over it because his crimes pale in comparison to the crimes of other much more influential people in this country. The effect of Bader’s words are completely eclipsed by the huge amount of human suffering caused by the actions of others, who no one dares to condemn in public. I would first like to see people in Bahrain publicly condemn those individuals (naming names, of course) before I start demanding that the BCHR publicly condemn Bader.
Getting back to the point, just because the BCHR failed to condemn Bader does not mean that this report is a lie. The report has raised a very important problem that needs to be brought to light, the points are very true, and most of the recommendations are very appropriate. Even if the report was written out of opportunism, the points made in it are very valid and we need to discuss them.
Finally, please tell me exactly where Abdulhadi said he was opposed to the policies of the McKinsey project and in favour of the “exploitative bosses”? From what I know, he has said that the project on its own in its current form won’t do anything to alleviate those who are in need right now. He has also expressed reservations about the people who are backing the project. He may be right or wrong about these points, but it is quite disingenious to use this to suggest that he is “standing alongside the most exploitative bosses”. By that reasoning, everyone who has reservations about George Bush and his policies against terrorism “stands alongside” Saddam and Osama bin Laden. Or I could use that reasoning to accuse you of “standing alongside” those who abuse migrant workers, based on your statements that you have reservations about the backers of this report.
September 28th, 2005 at 8:32 pm
“Even if the report was written out of opportunism”
I worked with the Migrant Workers Group, and I saw what kind of work they are dedicated to. Nabeel is one person who has dedicated most of his time and efforts to helping migrant workers, not just when it comes to specific cases but also to change laws so that migrant workers are treated equally.
Nabeel with many members representing different nationalities of migrants have worked together to help as many people as they can, if anyone thinks that Nabeel or the BCHR is doing that for their own interest you need to talk to all the victims who come to the Center and get help.
September 28th, 2005 at 10:07 pm
The BCHR’s work on the migrant workers rights set precedence for a movement, that not only called for improved legislation and prosecution for those who violate migrant workers rights, but something of even greater importance, and that is that it has created an awarness of the violations taking place in our community. People didn’t even consider the conditions that migrant workers lived and worked under as a violation of their human rights,
awhile back the local newspapers and the civil institutions considered what was happening as normal, the newspapers failed to even mention on their last pages instances of rape, suicide, horrific accidents of migrant workers, now they are slowly changing these policies, and although we are yet to reach any satisfying results, I suggest that all those who are critical of the centres work, take some time to consider what they can do to help….The Centre is under fire because they are not afraid to say what is right even when it goes against the “norm” and what is in Bahrain considered “politically correct” they have been subjected to a lot of critisizm on voicing their opinions on the Employers exploitation of the workers here in Bahrain, along with their continued opposition to the governments policies, that will in the future result in racial segregation!! People are poor and frustrated and if we dont work together that anger will be channeled in the wrong direction…..so lets work with whoever is willing to dedicate their time and effort in an attempt to improve civil liberties in Bharin, be they bahraini or migrant, for they are interwined!
October 4th, 2005 at 9:35 am
Sponsors cannot own foreign workers like owning a TV or a PC. Many employers feel that once a migrant worker is under his sponsorship, then he has complete control over him or her.
There are some employers who are also holding the CPR cards of their workers.
May 29th, 2006 at 6:57 pm
I am quite out of the topic but I just want to ask some information on how to acquire a housemate visa or what are the requirements in applying it. Thank you very much!
January 13th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Its time to teach these arogant arabs a lesson, soon we will take over