By Mandeep Singh

A TOTAL of 12,250 runaways have been reported to the Labour Marker Regulatory Authority (LMRA) since it took over expatriate employment affairs in July, it was revealed yesterday. Those who have been reported have 30 days from the date their cases were filed to come forward to the LMRA or face legal action.

No runaways will be allowed to transfer their employment to another employer or go back to their earlier employer, once their case is processed, LMRA chief executive Ali Radhi told a Press conference at his office in Sanabis.

“Anyone who has been reported as a runaway by his employer will have 30 days from the date he has been reported to come to the LMRA and prove otherwise,” he said.

“In case that does not happen, he will expose himself to the law, which will then take its own course.”

“We realise there are instances that some employers are unfairly listing their employees as runaways, so that is why we encourage that every employee checks his legal status in the country periodically by visiting the LMRA offices or its website (www.lmra.bh).”

Mr Radhi said it was important that this was being done for the benefit of the employees. He said another decision that had been taken was that work visas issued by the Labour Ministry before July will be accepted not later than the end of December this year.

“We request all those with such visas to approach the LMRA as soon as possible,” said Mr Radhi.

He said in another decision, all work visas that have been expired for at least 12 months would also be renewed till the end of the year.

“This can be considered a final chance for the expatriates to legalise their stay, after which they will face the law,” said Mr Radhi.

He said since the LMRA started its operations in July, it had dealt with 50,000 transactions.

“Now that we are well into completing five months, we can say that at least 80 per cent of the applications are submitted online,” said Mr Radhi.

He said 90pc of the LMRA services were available online.

“We are also in the process of training clearing agents with the online services and they can take advantage of these sessions conducted till 5pm every working day,” said Mr Radhi.

Also present at the Press conference were LMRA enforcement vice-president Younis Al Hermi, operations vice-president Yousif Al Hadi and finance and administration vice-president Raji Abdul Rahman.