Expatriate employees stranded without salaries, some sleeping on rooftops, female domestic workers working through illness, and families separated by distance and circumstance were supported last year by the kingdom’s oldest society dedicated to migrant rights.
In its recently released report covering October to December 2025, the Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) highlighted 13 cases in which the organisation stepped in to support expatriates in the kingdom.
“In the final months of the year, MWPS responded to urgent legal cases involving travel bans, unpaid dues, and employer disputes,” the MWPS outreach team said, in a statement.
“Each case required co-ordination and persistence. Behind every file was a person seeking a way forward. These months reminded us that justice is not automatic – it requires someone willing to stand beside them.”
The MWPS provided dry rations and one month of rent support to a South African national who had been sleeping in an abandoned building after being suddenly terminated by his employer without providing his final settlement.
In another case, the organisation helped cover fines and provided a one-way flight ticket to a Nigerian national who had been unemployed and undocumented for three years, unable to pay rent, afford food, or support his family in Nigeria.
Another Nigerian national who had previously received assistance in recovering his passport had also been unemployed for more than three years, moving between rooftops for shelter with no stable source of food or income.
The MWPS helped facilitate his return to his homeland.
The organisation also helped two Kenyan nationals, one of whom had approached the society requiring a biopsy after discovering a growth in her breast.
Unable to afford medical expenses and behind on rent, the society covered these costs and provided one month of rent support.
The second Kenyan domestic worker had arrived in Bahrain in 2024 for a two-year contract and had approached the MWPS regarding working conditions, including verbal abuse.
The case was resolved without escalation.
In another case, an Indian national who worked at a hotel was apprehended by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority for violating regulations after his sponsor allegedly made him work under two Commercial Registrations, although his work permit authorised employment under only one.
“Although released, he was unable to secure further employment,” MWPS added.
After his visa expired, MWPS facilitated his return home after co-ordinating with police and immigration authorities to clear violations, persuading the former sponsor to issue a ticket, and providing assistance in obtaining an exit permit from the Indian Embassy.
The MWPS also assisted in the repatriation of a deceased Filipino worker, who died of a heart attack late last year.
The cook, who had suffered cardiac attacks twice previously, died in November, after having left his job five months earlier.
Two months of his salary remained unpaid and he was seeking alternative work at the time. A neighbour approached MWPS after the sponsor refused to co-operate in repatriating the body.
MWPS co-ordinated with the company’s HR representative and sought intervention by the Philippines Embassy, which stepped in to persuade the sponsor to support the repatriation of the body.
Support was also extended to a Filipino worker who faced salary payment difficulties involving two employers.
The MWPS also handled five cases involving Sri Lankan nationals, one of whom was nearly eight months pregnant.
With her husband in prison on charges related to device theft and drug suspicion, she was alone in the kingdom and nearing the stage of pregnancy after which she would not be permitted to fly.
The organisation provided immediate repatriation support, including assistance with medical clearance for travel.
In a separate case, a Sri Lankan admitted to Salmaniya Medical Complex for chest pain received assistance in returning home for further treatment.
MWPS provided a one-way flight ticket.
Another Sri Lankan found herself living in her agency’s office after the agency brought her to Bahrain, despite her employment agreement being cancelled before she travelled to the kingdom.
She was later sent to work in a household for a 10-day trial period with no LMRA contract.
During this time, she worked long hours without proper rest and became unwell.
When she requested to return home, the agency refused and demanded she pay for her own ticket.
MWPS provided advisory support. After she said she would go to the police, the agent arranged her travel back home.
Another Sri Lankan, who was initially hired for cleaning but then required to perform additional household duties without proper rest, left her sponsor after six months.
The sponsor filed a runaway case, leading to a travel ban.
MWPS facilitated her return home.
In a long‑pending case, a Sri Lankan national who had been in Bahrain since 2011 as a domestic worker and undocumented since 2015 approached MWPS after paying her immigration penalty.
The organisation completed the necessary formalities and provided a flight ticket for her return home.
“I find myself thinking not in numbers or reports, but in faces – the faces that walked through our doors, the eyes that arrived anxious and left a little lighter and the hands that reached for help and found ours waiting,” MWPS chairperson Mona Almoayyed noted, in her message.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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