http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=70731&d=27&m=9&y=2005
Tuesday, 27, September, 2005 (23, Sha`ban, 1426)
Bahrain Group Accuses Employers of Blackmailing Migrant Workers
Mazen Mahdi, Arab News
MANAMA, 27 September 2005 - The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) in
a report issued yesterday accused sponsors of migrant workers in the Gulf of
slavery and blackmail practices.
The BCHR, which continues to operate despite being dissolved by the
Bahraini government in late 2004, cited how sponsors hold and confiscate
employees' passports and forbid them from traveling.
"Such actions are taken in an attempt to blackmail the workers, force
them to achieve illegitimate advantages or concede their salaries and
indemnities which were gained through years, taking advantage of their
desperation in seeing their homes and families after years of separation," the
report said.
BCHR vice president Nabeel Rajab said the practice of holding back the
passport began with the inflow of unskilled laborers from South and East Asia
at the start of the 1970s.
"The justification given at the time was that this was necessary for the
protection of the employer against cases where some workers had fled back to
their countries after they had violated the law and or committed a crime," he
said.
"But this phenomenon increased and became a means of pressuring,
blackmailing and punishing many migrant workers by their employers with many of
these victims being migrant women working as domestic helpers," Rajab added.
He criticized what the BCHR regarded as the "paralyzed" stance of
official institutions and law-enforcement authorities due to the lack of laws
to protect the workers against such practices.
The report also said that trade unions and women's societies have not
embarked on any serious discussions of the issue nor had they attempted to find
solutions for the workers, who are mainly women.
Unofficial figures suggest that there are some 10 million migrant workers
in the Gulf region, mainly from Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. The
vast majority of them work in low-wage jobs or as domestic helps.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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