A manager, who exploited an employee’s precarious situation by threatening to send him back to his war-torn country, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined BD2,000.
For months, the defendant reportedly forced the Sudanese office assistant to work for very long hours without breaks or weekends, and coerced him into signing away his rights.
The court heard that the Bahraini manager cancelled the employee’s lunch break, forced him to stay in the office until 11pm, deprived him of weekends and vacations, seized his passport and had him perform tasks outside of his job description.
The High Criminal Court found the 42-year-old manager guilty of forced labour and human trafficking, ruling that he had compelled the Sudanese man to work in a situation where he could not give consent.
On top of the jail term and fine, judges also ordered him to pay the expenses of repatriating the victim to his country.
He reportedly made the administrative assistant sign five documents, in which he stated that he received his full salaries. In reality, the victim had not received the money, and was made to sign the papers under threat of contract termination, which exposes him to the possibility of returning to Sudan.
Instead of paying him his BD250 salary, the defendant would send the expat BD30 to BD50 at a time, dock his pay for frivolous reasons and refuse to compensate him for overtime.
Additionally, he would ask him to run personal errands unrelated to the workplace, and withheld his passport ‘with no valid justification’.
The man also reportedly cursed at the employee and hit him.
“The defendant exploited the victim’s desire not to return to Sudan, in its extraordinary circumstances, and his need for work,” read the verdict.
“There is no need to grant a measure of mercy in this ruling, since the case does not call for it.”
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