By SOMAN BABY
SCORES of expatriates turned out to register with the Labour Market Regul-atory Authority (LMRA), as it opened a festival yesterday.
The aim of the festival is to complete the registration of all expatriates in Bahrain. The LMRA has already enrolled more than 270,000 expatriates, out of a total estimated number of 500,000.
By GEOFFREY BEW
BANGLADESHIS in Bahrain yesterday welcomed reports that a ban on work permits will not affect anyone already living in the country. The Interior Ministry announced on Sunday that only labourers who applied for a work visa after May 27 would be affected by the new policy.
WITH the creation of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) and the associated legislative requirements for employers, I was surprised to discover that some Bahraini employers have already started cheating the system.
I recently inquired about a ‘part-time’ position dealing with real estate. I was informed that actually it wasn’t part-time at all, and was just described that way to get around the LMRA requirement for sponsorship!
By SOMAN BABY
HIRING professionals from India in Bahrain is becoming extremely difficult due to improved salaries and incentives there, according to a visiting recruiting agency chief.
This is coupled with an unprecedented demand for skilled workers and professionals in India, said Andhra Pradesh Recruiting Agents Association president Mohammed Abdul Razzak.
By Mandeep Singh
COMPANIES need to come forward to provide up-to-date information on their expatriate workers to labour authorities, it was reiterated yesterday.
With a little more than a month remaining for the July 1 deadline for companies to “cleanse” their data, only about 20 per cent of the expatriate workers have been registered so far, said Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) chief executive Ali Radhi.
With reference to Mrs June M Al Saffar letter (GDN, May 25) “How much cleansing?”, we would like to clear everyone’s confusion between the employee’s enrolment and the data cleansing processes.
There are general misconceptions that once employees have been enrolled, they are automatically cleansed, or that we need the employees again in order to complete the data cleansing!
By MANDEEP SINGH
MANAMA
SMALL contracting companies who depend on cheap labour will be hit the hardest following a government decision to ban Bangladeshis from working in Bahrain, industry officials said yesterday.
By geoffrey bew
THE Bangladesh government yesterday said it would not stand in the way of Bahrain’s decision to stop issuing visas to its nationals.
The news of the ban has sent shockwaves through the more than 90,000-strong Bangladeshi community in Bahrain, say officials.
By BASMA MOHAMMED
BAHRAIN’s decision to no longer issue work permits to Bangladeshis has prompted a mixed response from the Bahraini and expat communities.
The GDN yesterday spoke to people in the Manama suq and an area of Salmaniya known as the “Bangladesh colony”, where many illegal workers are known to live.
Labour Ministry officials said yesterday that it had nothing to do with the ban decision.
“The ministry is not responsible in specifying the nationalities of workers being brought to Bahrain,” said its public and international relations director Subah Al Dossary.