WITH reference to Ajeetha’s letter (GDN, June 23), she has rightly pointed out about employers ignoring the law and still keeping their employees’ passports, as if it is their birthright.

The problem in Bahrain is not the law, it is law enforcement. Employers, especially Bahraini companies, feel they can get away with anything due to a few contacts they may have at the Labour Ministry.

Ajeetha, at least, your employer is a hospital, our company is owned by a prominent minister, and his brother still feels that it is his right to hold our passports and they still do it.

I remember that once in Dubai, there was just an announcement that people should refrain from drying their clothes on the balcony or else they would be fined. The law was not even implemented, but all residents started abiding by it.

This is where the difference is. Laws should not simply exist in books. Creating authorities is one thing and actually getting people to agree and follow is different.

The Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), for instance, is playing no different a role than an agency heavily involved in conducting a population census. Wake up LMRA, announcements on the radio and other mediums are not going to help. You think an employee earning BD200 will go to the police station to complain about his passport being kept by his employers?

Secondly, being an expat, I may not know what report is being filed by the police, since it will be in Arabic. What if the charges are actually against me? Has the LMRA taken this into account?

Please let’s stop talking nonsense. I’ll give the LMRA names of employers who are blatantly violating this. Will it do something about it? No! Why? Because their powers end the moment they reach the outskirts of a company.

So what justice are they going to provide us? Look at the owners of some small hotels, or beauty parlours, where people are working for more than 18 hours a day and are not given sick leave or a day off by their greedy owners.

I say Bahraini employers are involved in human trafficking. It is just that there is a legal route available for them to do that.