A TOTAL of 2,596 runaway housemaids were reported by employers over the last two years.
Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel Humaidan, who is also Labour Market Regulatory Authority board chairman, said in a written response to Parliament that 1,693 of them were Ethiopians.
He added that 562 were Indonesians, 527 Kenyans, 150 Indians, 106 Bangladeshis and 62 Sri Lankans.
A total of 217 runaways were from the Philippines, 40 from Uganda, 24 from Ghana, 17 from Pakistan, four from Nepal and one from Cameron.
“There are 2,596 pending runaway housemaid cases since December 2018, 257 had their employment permits cancelled, and 550 had their status corrected and legalised,” said Mr Humaidan.
“We have deported 542 housemaids while eight changed sponsors.
“Should the Interior Ministry detain a runaway housemaid and there is no evidence of her working for someone else, then the original sponsor has to pay for her deportation.”
Meanwhile, in another response, Mr Humaidan said 19,985 individuals benefited from the Insurance against Unemployment scheme last year compared with 17,672 individuals in 2019.
“In total, without repetition of names from January 2019 until October 2020, we had 25,569 individuals benefiting from the Unemployment Fund,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bahrain’s tourism industry suffered an estimated BD1 billion blow as a result of the outbreak of Covid-19 and the restrictions put in place to help prevent its spread.
Various sectors have suffered a daily loss of BD4 million amounting to BD108m per month over the last nine months, revealed Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed Alzayani in another written response set to be debated during Tuesday’s Parliament session.
He added that the kingdom had lost 29,000 visitors per day.
The minister also responded in writing to a question on strategic food stocks.
Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam Khalaf is also set to appear in Parliament to reply on reducing expenditure on existing and new municipal projects and new road projects in the Northern Governorate constituency seven.
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