WITHHOLDING an employee’s passport with the intention of exploiting him constitutes a human trafficking violation, said an expert.
International Organisation of Migration (IOM) chief of mission (Bahrain) Mohamed El Zarkani, however, admitted that the crime was difficult to prove.
He also said it was imperative to understand why passport retention continues to be an issue.
“The malicious intent behind withholding one’s travel document would generally be to prevent the person from switching to another job or leaving the country,” he said.
“And there are various reasons why employers resort to this practice.
“For instance, in the case of an employer who has spent say about $4,000 in recruiting a domestic worker,
“This is a lot of money.
“If the housemaid leaves the job after three months, the employer has to once again pay a similar amount for another worker.”
But Mr El Zarkani pointed out that Bahrain now offers employers insurance on recruitment fees.
“Bahrain is the only country in the region that has successfully piloted this scheme.
“However, this is not a cure for the disease.”
He added change will take place only when employers stop seeing their workers as an investment.
“We need to stop looking at the contractual relationship with an employee as an investment.”
In order to combat this problem, the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) has instituted a system under which an expatriate worker does not need his original passport to switch employers as part of the mobility scheme, just a photocopy of the travel document would do.
The authority is also co-ordinating the embassies to expedite the process of reissuing passports in case a human trafficking victim wants to leave the country.
“The passport is the property of the country that has issued it, and under no circumstances should it be withheld from the owner,” said Mr El Zarkani.
According to Bahrain’s Constitution, an employer has no right to hold an employee’s passport without a court order and is in violation of freedom of movement in contravention of Article (19) (b) of the Constitution which ensures the freedom of movement of every person on the territory of Bahrain.
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