BAHRAIN initiated legal action against more than 2,400 illegal expatriate workers as part of a major crackdown on violations last year.
Labour Minister Jameel Humaidan said while 1,967 were runaways, 482 were found breaching rules by working for other employers illegally despite holding valid work permits.
Of the runaways, 887 were regular workers and 1,080 were domestic helps.
Mr Humaidan, who is also Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) board chairman, told MPs in writing that a total of 559,822 expatriates have active work permits. A total of 486,047 were employed in 2,655 occupations as of March 5, 2023, while 73,775 were domestic workers.
The minister, who was responding to questions by first deputy speaker Abdulnabi Salman, services committee chairman Mamdooh Al Saleh and MP Muneer Suroor on expatriate workers and Bahrainisation plans, said the statistics excluded 119,713 family members and 20,844 expat investors.
“We are working to attract foreign investments and companies that would give top priority to employing Bahraini nationals,” said Mr Humaidan.
“Last year, we had foreign investments worth BD1.124 billion in 89 projects that created 6,397 new jobs and at least 1,652 citizens employed in these roles have monthly salaries of more than BD1,000,” he explained.
“The government is keen to ensure that Bahraini graduates match the needs of the labour market.
“Tamkeen has launched Skills Bahrain as a job index platform, in which necessary skills required for each job are assessed and regularly turned into dynamic standards.
“We are also working with the public and private sectors to launch an electronic platform for jobs.”
Mr Humaidan added that secondary school graduates were also being given vocational training through mentors to upskill them and make them fit for creative roles.
“We have managed to employ 29,995 Bahrainis last year, which is 149.9pc of the announced target of 20,000,” said Mr Humaidan.
“This has come as we tackled illegal employment of expatriates in jobs that creates an unfair competition for Bahrainis,” he added.
“We conducted 27,019 inspections and 292 joint raids and all violators have been referred to the Public Prosecution.”
According to the minister, 119,713 family members of expat workers are residing in the country. A total of 20,844 expat investors have been registered until February 13, 2023.
There are 234,001 registered Indian workers, followed by 88,142 Bangladeshis and 60,330 Pakistanis out of 20 top labour exporting countries.
Filipinas constitute the highest number of domestic workers (20,328) followed by Indians (19,810) and Ethiopians (9,064) out of 10 main countries.
“We have 35,844 expats registered officially in vocational jobs until early March since flexi permits were cancelled in October last year,” said Mr Humaidan.
“Out of them, 5,387 are carpenters, 3,737 painters, 5,678 drivers, 4,044 general and car cleaners, 3,199 construction workers, 1,459 plumbers while 12,795 do other jobs,” he added.
The minister confirmed that 70pc of manpower was in the private sector compared to 30pc in the government departments.
He also highlighted the Bahrainisation rates in various sectors, including health (70.9pc), administrative (62.4pc), education (57.5pc), financial (53.7pc) and industrial (29.7pc).
Meanwhile, Education Minister Dr Mohammed Mubarak Juma will also appear during the weekly session on Tuesday to reply to a question by MP Hisham Al Awadhi on students suffering from disabilities.
MPs are set to vote on joining the GCC Unified Link Payment System. The legislation has been urgently referred by the Cabinet.
mohammed@gdnmedia.bh
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