Bahrain this month introduced a major overhaul of its permit formula for expatriate workers, aiming to crack down on foreigners who arrive in the country with their own sponsorship and without guaranteeing their residency.
The country abolished its 2016 FlexiPermit system, which allowed expats to enter and live in the country for two years without a predetermined employer. FlexiPermit holders can only work full-time or part-time for an indefinite number of employers in an indefinite number of fields and can simply renew the visa upon expiration.
Under this system, more than 531,000 foreigners from 161 countries were running in Bahrain as of the end of 2021. This number included some 110,000 expatriates who entered the country with a job, but then left their painting stand without registering a new painting position. Face or contact. Number.
Bahrain’s Prime Minister Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa abolished the FlexiPermit formula in reaction to court cases in the country’s advertising sector. They had attacked the formula from its inception, calling it destructive to Bahrain’s advertising market.
Under the new system, foreign personnel will have to have discovered a job to download a painting permit, and paintings in specialized occupations will only be allowed with a license to practice the career or equivalent issued by the corresponding authorities. Foreigners in Bahrain with a tourist visa will not be allowed to enroll in the system.
Expatriate staff who had operated under the FlexiPermit system, plus those who had violated their residency status and all those who had left their painting post, could register under the new system. They had to download a painting permit for their declared profession by paying a monthly fee.
Under the new system, a foreigner carries a card containing a QR code, which lists all the applicable data about him, adding the professions in which he can work, the type of permit he has and the aptitude insurance he has.
Expatriate staff in Bahrain registering under the scheme will be required to pay canopy permit issuance and renewal fees, fitness insurance and insurance for departure costs, in addition to monthly fees and registration fees. Registered staff also cannot set up a business themselves.
“Unfortunately, the FlexiPermit formula has been misused through foreign workers,” a source familiar with the matter told The Media Line. . “
The source added: “Before the implementation of the FlexiPermit in 2017, employers had to apply for a visa for the employee, and then the employee would come to Bahrain through the sponsorship of this company. If the employee was looking to replace [jobs], he had to find a new employer before converting sponsors.
He said that while the FlexiPermit was created “to give staff more freedom and give violators the ability to log into the system in a moment,” the procedure had been abused.
“What happened that some [expatriate workers] started setting up businesses and promoting outside the law, in addition to defrauding and begging on the streets, while others committed crimes similar to human trafficking, prostitution and drugs,” the source said.
“The protection government monitored those risks, did its job, expelled offending personnel and replaced the formula to save them from the abuses that occurred. The new formula does not violate foreign human rights law, nor does it allow human trafficking,” he said. .
Hassan Abdulnabi, a Bahraini journalist specializing in economic affairs, told The Media Line that while expatriate personnel are wanted in Bahrain and indeed in the Gulf, “unfortunately, many of them are breaking the law and therefore those practices want to be controlled. “
Abdulnabi also said that many foreign employees in Bahrain have “a work permit that allows them to work in corporations and start their own business, but some do it illegally. “
He warned that such practices were causing wonderful damage to Bahrain’s small market, which sees more than a billion dinars (US$2. 65 billion) transferred through foreign personnel in Bahrain to its own country. Given that the country’s GDP is only 14 billion dinars ($37 billion) in total, this is not sustainable, he said.
“Gulf countries in general are among the countries where the amount of remittances are transferred abroad, relative to the percentage of staff and GDP. Bahrainis are now unable to operate their businesses because of this,” he said.
Nouf Jamsheer, executive director of Bahrain’s Labour Market Regulatory Authority, told a government news conference that the new registration formula would be a partnership between the public and sectors.
Jamsheer noted that surveillance of the formula was also intensified in cooperation with the Interior Ministry, adding visits to offices, to “preserve the rights of all parties. “
“We are combating illegal practices, adding the sale of frames with tickets and without tickets, in addition to combating all the bureaucracy of human trafficking and forced labor,” he said, adding that a formula of “salary protection” that will get staff their payments.
Sameer Nass, president of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told the news conference that “the number of casual workers has reached frightening figures. “The new system, he said, “protects Bahrain’s economy. “
Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel Humaidan said “there will be coverage for migrant workers” but warned that “any violator will be deported. “
Hassan Khaled, a Bahraini blacksmith shop owner, told The Media Line that he took hostage through his expatriate workers who refused to do the task they were hired to do.
“I had to leave the workshop for my Indian workers, all with FlexiPermit, and I can’t manage them anymore,” he said.
“They sabotaged the equipment and then did not carry out the required tasks. But because I paid them cash for the recruitment and initial painting permit fees, as well as the ticket price and residency fees, I couldn’t bring in other painters,” he said.
“After six months of losses, they asked me not to interfere in the affairs of the workshop and to allow them to manage it for two hundred dinars consistent with the month (530 USD), while the source of income of the workshop more than 10,000 dinars (26,500 USD). ) before they start sabotaging it.
Ann, an employee from the Philippines who lives in Bahrain, told The Media Line that the new formula also provides protection to foreigners who were exposed to abuse under FlexiPermit.
“I came here in 2018 to work as a secretary, but some of my friends convinced us to get the flexible visa and leave our employers,” she said.
“I had no cash, so they gave me the cash to get the permit,” he said, adding that they were also from the Philippines. “Then I couldn’t do a homework and I couldn’t pay the debt, so they told me I had pictures in prostitution and confiscated my passport.
“I turned to the authorities, who addressed me. My passport was returned and all networking stopped. Now I work as a waitress in a restaurant. I replaced my flexible visa and was sponsored by the restaurant owner.
Abdul Wahab, a Bangladeshi employee who has lived in Bahrain for 15 years and works as a car washer, also told The Media Line that the adjustments may just be an improvement.
“I used to hire a painting permit from a company. I registered with them as a housekeeper, but I paid them 1,500 dinars ($4,000) every two years in exchange for loose paints and not for the company,” she said.
Wahab said he had a monthly income of about 500 dinars ($1300) to wash cars. He will pay 30 dinars ($80) a month for accommodation in dormitories and another 80 dinars ($210) in expenses. I am moving the rest to my circle of relatives in Bangladesh,” he said.
Now he has switched to the new system, under which he will pay the government 500 dinars ($1,300) for his painting permit, which includes health insurance and other benefits.
“It’s much bigger than paying a company and evading the police because I don’t paint in my paint place. “