Manama, Mar. 3 (BNA): CEO of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), Osama bin Abdulla Al-Absi, has denied making any statements to a local or foreign newspaper about LMRA’s cooperation experience with the Interior Ministry or any of its departments.
He affirmed that the existing relation between LMRA and the Ministry of Interior is “successful”, and has become “exemplary” in addressing the local economic situation, noting that the relation between the two sides has been praised by the relevant international organisations which, he said, have described it as unprecedented in the Arab and Middle East region.
Al-Absi explained that LMRA enjoys the direct support of the Interior Minister, Lieutenant-General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, adding that the Interior Ministry provides all kinds of support to LMRA to ensure the success of its projects not only in combating the phenomenon of free-visa workers.
He stressed that the Interior Ministry has supported LMRA since its establishments as the two sides deliver joint services through a unified e-system, and have become a role model for successful cooperation among official institutions that serve the citizens.
“We are confident that such baseless and hasty news will not affect the efforts of the Interior Ministry in delivering venerable services and cooperating with other institutions, and it does not expect the testimony of anyone in carrying out its duties,” he said, warning that such news may undermine the size of achievements at the popular level and cause detrimental damage to Bahrain’s reputation which, he said, is making confident steps and gaining higher rankings in the international indicators related to workers’ rights and the humanitarian steps it is making within its commitments to international conventions.
LMRA chief called on media outlets to verify the accuracy of their stories before publishing them so as to be able to assume their patriotic enlightening and supervisory role, and be constructive tools amid the current national phase which requires everyone to contribute to the comprehensive development march in the kingdom.
He affirmed that LMRA’s doors are open to all media outlets, in line with the leadership’s directives to cooperate with all sides for the main goal of conveying accurate information from their approved sources to promote the transparency principle -one of the key pillars of reform in the kingdom.
“Therefore, I am surprised and denounce the publication of statements that I have never made to any media or non-media sides, not to mention that they include false information which could distort reality and undermine Bahrain’s achievements regarding its international reputation concerning its procedures related to work and workers,” he said, adding that “the erroneous statement describes the workers’ protection centre as a prison and claims that it has stopped working, while the kingdom of Bahrain enjoys an advanced international status in providing protection for expatriate workers.”
Al-Absi stressed that the statement attributed to him included wrong information that has to be rectified; otherwise they will result in distorting the existing situation.
He added that LMRA’s multiple projects aim to diversify services and propose new alternatives to address the needs and requirements of the labour market, noting that LMRA’s projects will not be successful without the support of the leadership and the relevant government departments led by the Ministry of Interior.