By SOMAN BABY

ENROLMENT of expatriates is to be resumed by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) today.

It will be open only for families at the Marina Mall, from 11am to 7pm, said LMRA e-services and public relations manager Waheed Al Balushi.

Another centre will be opened for expatriate workers shortly, he told the GDN.

“The new enrolment campaign is being held to help those who were not able to register at the LMRA festival, held at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) last month,” said Mr Al Balushi.

The number of expatriates registered at the festival last month was 107,261.

The total number of expats registered with the LMRA has already reached 362,442.

Of those who registered at the festival, about 50 per cent were Indians.

Meanwhile, the LMRA headquarters is receiving hundreds of employers who want to apply for their new work visas, renewal of visas or for data cleansing.

Only those companies, which have cleansed the data of their workers with LMRA, will be eligible to apply for new visas or for renewal.

Mr Al Balushi said the data of only 167,619 expats have been cleansed so far. This constitutes only 33pc of the total.

“Out of 60,981 companies or organisations in Bahrain, only 16,869 or 28pc have come forward so far to cleanse the data,” he revealed.

Companies have started paying for new work visas and other services at the LMRA, which took over the responsibility from the Labour Ministry on July 1.

“The LMRA has so far collected BD594,112 in fees relating to the services for 5,543 employees,” said Mr Al Balushi.

“These include the fees for new visas or renewals, both BD200 each, or monthly levy of BD10 each.”