Migrant workers in Bahrain

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Migrant workers in Bahrain describe the foreign workers who have moved to Bahrain for work.

Contents

History

Bahrain served as a key location on the maritime routes connecting the Fertile Crescent with India for many years. It was also a hub for the international pearl trade and, a regional commerce hub. Its shores have been visited by craftsmen, traders, sailors and soldiers from the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, India and, more recently, Europe. In the 1930s, things began to change because of expanding British influence and oil development. By 1941 the proportion of migrants in the population had risen to almost 18%. Large-scale expansions occurred in the trade sector, oil refinery, the construction of communications and other facilities, and a gradual improvement in administration and public services. Τhe earliest employment data appears in the year of 1959. Around 17% of the population, or about a third of the workforce, were migrants. In the 1960s, the rate of increase skyrocketed. An aluminum smelter was built as part of additional industrial growth. Communications and commerce both experienced strong expansion, as did public works, housing, and other services. In 1971 however, situation was differed from 1959 when migrants made up about 18% of the population and made up 38% of the labor. Growth remained slow until 1971, and there were much fewer migrants in the population and labor force than elsewhere. Bahrain saw a rise after 1973 due to increased oil prices. Significantly increased public spending spurred an era of unprecedented growth and structural development. The overall number of migrants has increased by 197% when spouses and dependents are counted. [1]

Foreign labor

Migrant workers come mainly from South and Southeast Asia, Egypt and Jordan. [2] The sector of employment of these workers is in construction, automotive repair, hospitality and domestic service. [3] The Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) estimate that around 70,000 migrant workers that live in Bahrain are undocumented. The majority of them are Bangladeshi workers. Although the government assert the labor code for the private sector applies to all workers, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and international NGOs noted foreign workers faced discrimination in the workplace. In many cases employers withheld passports, restricted movement, substituted contracts, or did not pay wages. [4] Under the Social Insurance Law of 1976, both Bahrainis and migrants were eligible for pensions. However, later on, the system was changed so that only citizens were eligible for pensions, and both public and private sector employers were required to give their migrant workers end-of-service bonuses. [5] Fear of deportation or employer retaliation prevented many migrant workers from complaining to authorities. Some employers also subjected them to physical and sexual abuse. [6] The Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) at times took in women who were mostly domestic workers. Among them was at least one woman who reported being raped. Victims did not seek legal redress because they could not prove guilt in court without testimony. Even though the government sometimes enforced the law, sexual harassment remained a widespread problem for women, especially migrant women employed as domestic workers and in other low-threshold service occupations. [7] According to the U.S. State Department, working conditions have changed positively. Over the past 15 years, the country has abolished the practice of transporting workers to jobs in open trucks. Bahrain has also introduced the flexi-visa permit, which has given many workers more freedom to work. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Bahrain</span> National economy of Bahrain

The economy of Bahrain is heavily dependent upon oil and gas. The Bahraini Dinar is the second-highest-valued currency unit in the world. Since the late 20th century, Bahrain has heavily invested in the banking and tourism sectors. The country's capital, Manama is home to many large financial structures. Bahrain's finance industry is very successful. In 2008, Bahrain was named the world's fastest growing financial center by the City of London's Global Financial Centres Index. Bahrain's banking and financial services sector, particularly Islamic banking, have benefited from the regional boom driven by demand for oil. Petroleum is Bahrain's most exported product, accounting for 60% of export receipts, 70% of government revenues, and 11% of GDP. Aluminium is the second most exported product, followed by finance and construction materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foreign worker</span> Person working in a country where they do not have citizenship

Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest workers are often either sent or invited to work outside their home country or have acquired a job before leaving their home country, whereas migrant workers often leave their home country without a specific job in prospect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domestic worker</span> Person who works within the employers household

A domestic worker or domestic servant is a person who works within the scope of a residence. The term "domestic service" applies to the equivalent occupational category. In traditional English contexts, such a person was said to be "in service". Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual, from providing cleaning and household maintenance, or cooking, laundry and ironing, or care for children and elderly dependents, and other household errands.

Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influence working conditions in relations of employment. One of the most prominent is the right to freedom of association, otherwise known as the right to organize. Workers organized in trade unions exercise the right to collective bargaining to improve working conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Migrant worker</span> Person who migrates to pursue work

A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.

Migrant domestic workers are, according to the International Labour Organization’s Convention No. 189 and the International Organization for Migration, any persons "moving to another country or region to better their material or social conditions and improve the prospect for themselves or their family," engaged in a work relationship performing "in or for a household or households." Domestic work itself can cover a "wide range of tasks and services that vary from country to country and that can be different depending on the age, gender, ethnic background and migration status of the workers concerned." These particular workers have been identified by some academics as situated within "the rapid growth of paid domestic labor, the feminization of transnational migration, and the development of new public spheres." Prominent discussions on the topic include the status of these workers, reasons behind the pursue in this labour, recruitment and employment practices in the field, and various measures being undertaken to change the conditions of domestic work among migrants.

Jordan is a source, destination, and transit country for adults and children subjected to forced labor and, to a lesser extent, sex trafficking. Women from Southeast Asia and East Africa voluntarily migrate to Jordan for employment among the estimated 50,000 foreign domestic workers in the country; some domestic workers are subjected to forced labor. Many of these workers are unable to return to their home countries due to pending criminal charges against them or due to their inability to pay overstay penalties or plane fare home. Some migrant workers from Egypt—the largest source of foreign labor in Jordan—experience forced labor in the construction, service, and agricultural sectors. Syrians may face forced labor in the agricultural sector, while some refugee children are subjected to the worst forms of child labor. Men and women from throughout Asia migrate to work in factories in Jordan's garment industry where some workers experience forced labor. Jordan's sponsorship system places a significant amount of power in the hands of employers and recruitment agencies, preventing workers from switching employers or receiving adequate access to legal recourse in response to abuse. Some Sri Lankan women engaged in prostitution in the country may be trafficking victims.

Migrant workers in Kuwait constitute a significant proportion of the population.

Global workforce refers to the international labor pool of workers, including those employed by multinational companies and connected through a global system of networking and production, foreign workers, transient migrant workers, remote workers, those in export-oriented employment, contingent workforce or other precarious work. As of 2012, the global labor pool consisted of approximately 3 billion workers, around 200 million unemployed.

Bahrain is a Source and destination country for men and women subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Men and women from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Ethiopia, and Eritrea migrate voluntarily to Bahrain to work as domestic workers or as unskilled laborers in the construction and service industries. Some, however, face conditions of forced labor after arriving in Bahrain, through use of such practices as unlawful withholding of passports, restrictions on movement, contract substitution, non-payment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse.

Qatar is a transit and destination country for men and women subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and, to a much lesser extent, forced prostitution. Men and women from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Sudan, Thailand, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and China voluntarily travel to Qatar as laborers and domestic servants, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude. These conditions include threats of serious physical or financial harm; job switching; the withholding of pay; charging workers for benefits for which the employer is responsible; restrictions on freedom of movement, including the confiscation of passports and travel documents and the withholding of exit permits; arbitrary detention; threats of legal action and deportation; false charges; and physical, mental, and sexual abuse. In some cases, arriving migrant workers have found that the terms of employment in Qatar are wholly different from those they agreed to in their home countries. Individuals employed as domestic servants are particularly vulnerable to trafficking since they are not covered under the provisions of the labor law. A small number of foreign workers transit Qatar and are forced to work on farms in Saudi Arabia. Qatar is also a destination for women who migrate and become involved in prostitution, but the extent to which these women are subjected to forced prostitution is unknown. Children have been used in Qatar and other Gulf countries as camel jockies. Most children are trafficked from Africa and South Asia. This practice has ceased in most areas though. Workers have been forced to work in bad conditions; their salaries are sometimes withheld.

The Maldives is primarily a destination country for migrant workers from Bangladesh, and, to a lesser extent, India, some of whom are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor. Some women are also subjected to forced prostitution. An unknown number of the 110,000 foreign workers currently working in the Maldives – primarily in the construction and service sectors – face fraudulent recruitment practices, confiscation of identity and travel documents, withholding or non-payment of wages, or debt bondage. Thirty thousand of these workers do not have legal status in the country, though both legal and illegal workers were vulnerable to conditions of forced labor. Diplomatic sources estimate that half of the 35,000 Bangladeshis in the Maldives went there illegally and that most of these workers are probably victims of trafficking. Migrant workers pay $1,000 to $4,000 in recruitment fees in order to migrate to the Maldives; such high recruitment costs increase workers’ vulnerability to forced labor, as concluded in a recent ILO report.

The Philippine Labor Migration Policy of the Philippine government allows and encourages emigration. The Department of Foreign Affairs, which is one of the government's arms of emigration, grants Filipinos passports that allow entry to foreign countries. The Philippine government enacted the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 in order to "institute the policies of overseas employment and establish a higher standard of protection and promotion of the welfare of migrant workers and their families and overseas Filipinos in distress."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kafala system</span> System used to monitor migrant laborers in Arab countries

The kafala system is a system used to monitor migrant laborers, working primarily in the construction and domestic sectors in Gulf Cooperation Council member states and a few neighboring countries, namely Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Labor policy in the Philippines is specified mainly by the country's Labor Code of the Philippines and through other labor laws. They cover 38 million Filipinos who belong to the labor force and to some extent, as well as overseas workers. They aim to address Filipino workers’ legal rights and their limitations with regard to the hiring process, working conditions, benefits, policymaking on labor within the company, activities, and relations with employees.

Women migrant workers from developing countries engage in paid employment in countries where they are not citizens. While women have traditionally been considered companions to their husbands in the migratory process, most adult migrant women today are employed in their own right. In 2017, of the 168 million migrant workers, over 68 million were women. The increase in proportion of women migrant workers since the early twentieth century is often referred to as the "feminization of migration".

Migrant workers in the United Arab Emirates describe the foreign workers who have moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for work. As a result of the proximity of the UAE to South Asia and a better economy and job opportunities, most of the migrant foreign workers are from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

Migrant workers in the Gulf Cooperation Council region involves the prevalence of migrant workers in the Kingdom of Bahrain, the State of Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman, the State of Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Together, these six countries form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), established in 1981. The GCC cooperates on issues related to economy and politics, and the subject of migrant workers constitutes a substantial part of the council's collaboration. All of the GCC countries are dependent on migrant labor to bolster and stimulate economic growth and development, as the GCC countries possess an abundance of capital while the domestic labor capacity is low. Although migrant workers in the Persian Gulf region amount to no more than 10% of all migrants worldwide, they constitute a significant part of the populations of their host countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slavery in Qatar</span>

Open Slavery existed in Qatar until the 1950s. Slavery was formally abolished in Qatar in 1952.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treatment of South Asian labourers in the Gulf Cooperation Council region</span> Human rights concern

The treatment of South Asian labourers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is an ongoing issue between members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations and the wealthy oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council. The current large number of migrants from South Asia to the Persian Gulf began in the 1960s, when the oil boom in the Gulf Arab countries resulted in migrant labourers. This further increased with the development of large mega-cities. With the growth of megacities of Dubai, Doha and Riyadh, the need for construction labourers grew. Migrants from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh were contracted to develop the mushrooming skyscrapers. Many of these migrants were brought into the GCC under the kafala system, a sponsor-based system used in the GCC, which is seen by many human rights groups as highly exploitative, since their passports are confiscated and are forced to work in low-level conditions, with cramped living quarters, low salary, and sometimes even without their due pay; when exploitation is brought up or exposed by media or the labourers, their employers are rarely punished.

References

  1. ↑ Ufheil-Somers, Amanda (1985-05-04). "Migrant Labor and the Politics of Development in Bahrain". MERIP. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  2. ↑ "Migrant workers". Minority Rights Group. 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  3. ↑ "2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bahrain". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  4. ↑ "2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bahrain". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  5. ↑ "Pension urged for expatriates in Bahrain". www.zawya.com. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  6. ↑ "2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Bahrain". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  7. ↑ "BAHRAIN 2015 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-01-05.
  8. ↑ "Bahrain's strides in human rights". DT News. Retrieved 2023-01-05.
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