A TOP government official yesterday denied Bahrain was plagued with a plethora of “runaway” domestic workers.
Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) chief executive Nibras Talib said, during the weekly Shura Council session, that from 2019 to date around 2,000 have illegally left work.
However, he added that these numbers needed to drop.
His comments followed accusations by services committee secretary Dr Ali Al Haddad that 57,000 domestic workers were runaways.
Shura Council Chairman Ali Saleh Al Saleh said the term runaway was improper. “Those workers left work in violation and they didn’t break out from jail so they are not runaways,” he said.
However, he wondered why many domestic workers left after three months, as soon as the manpower agencies’ repayment guarantee was over.
Shura’s second vice-chairwoman Dr Jihad Al Fadhel and legislative and legal affairs committee chairwoman Dallal Al Zayed urged that a comprehensive law that tackles ‘runaways’ be drawn up.
Shura’s legislative and legal affairs committee vice-chairman Shaikh Adel Al Maawada and member Hamad Al Nuaimi demanded action against representatives of domestic workers’ source embassies threatening employers with phone calls or personal appearances.
“They need to address their issues through the Foreign Ministry, LMRA or the police,” said Mr Al Nuaimi.
Mr Talib pointed out that there was a hotline for people to call whenever a worker leaves in violation.
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