By LES HORTON

We finally registered yesterday with the new Labour Market Regulatory Authority, in what was a surprisingly easy exercise.

I had dreaded going down to the LMRA festival at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre, fearing hours of queuing.

But having dragged the children out of bed, skipped breakfast and got into the hall just before 7.30am, we were actually in and out in around 10 minutes.

Smiling staff escorted us to the family section, where a young Bahraini woman fussed over the children, helped us fill out the relevant form, took our photographs and fingerprints, then sent us on our way.

It was all very simple and painless, apart from the fact that a computer error at the CPR office means that I am now five months older than I really am.

But as Sara and I drove away, our conversation turned to how we would have reacted back in our own country to being asked to submit to fingerprinting – and what those records may now be used for.

Back home we would without doubt have been amongst the objectors, for we come from a country where civil rights have long take precedent over the demands of the authorities – at least that was the case before the notorious 9/11 attacks in the US.

But here, we submitted without a whimper, a trade-off of practicality against principle, since to refuse would at some point mean having to leave.

By the time the LMRA has finished its registrations it will have around 500,000 expatriates on its books, with their photographs and fingerprints available for recall at the click of a computer mouse.

Meanwhile, Bahrainis seeking the new electronic Smart Cards, which are replacing the old CPR cards, are being submitted to a similar process, which means that the government will eventually be in possession of the ‘dabs’ of the entire population.

But who will have access to those records? Will the police be able to tap into what is effectively a national database of finger and thumb prints, plus photos?

It would certainly help in the fight against crime and I am sure that if it is not available to police, it is certainly on their wish list – just as it is back in the UK.

By allowing the authorities to document us in this way, we have placed our trust in them that it will not be abused.

But that information is there forever in electronic storage and who knows who may one day be able to tap into it, or for what purpose.