By SOMAN BABY
MANAMA
Passports of more than 75 runaway workers were handed over by their employers to the respective embassies yesterday.This is in response to a call made by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA).
The passports were handed over to the embassy counters at the LMRA premises in Sanabis.
Eight embassies opened their temporary counters at the ground floor of the LMRA headquarters yesterday.
They are the embassies of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria .
“We are extremely happy with the response from employers,” said LMRA chief executive Ali Radhi.
By SOMAN BABY
MANAMA
Passports of more than 75 runaway workers were handed over by their employers to the respective embassies yesterday.This is in response to a call made by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA).
The passports were handed over to the embassy counters at the LMRA premises in Sanabis.
Eight embassies opened their temporary counters at the ground floor of the LMRA headquarters yesterday.
They are the embassies of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria .
“We are extremely happy with the response from employers,” said LMRA chief executive Ali Radhi.
“The embassy counters will remain open at the LMRA premises for one month, and we are happy that they received 76 passports on the first day itself.
“These include 41 passports at the Bangladeshi counter, 29 at the Indian Embassy counter and six at the Pakistan Embassy counter.”
Mr Radhi said many employers have informed the LMRA that they would be willing to hand over the passports of the runaway workers.
“Some of them had filed cases against the workers, and they have even agreed to withdraw the cases,” he added.
Two employers – Ali Jawahery and Samih Rajab – who handed over the passports of some of their runaway workers spoke at the Press conference.
They urged other employers also to do the same in order to support LMRA’s efforts to clean up the labour market and make the amnesty process smooth and successful.
Mr Jawahery, who is chairman of Excellence Industrial Maintenance, recalled that his company was the first establishment to receive the first work visa issued by LMRA.
“We are happy with the transparent procedures followed at LMRA,” he noted.
“Two workers ran away from our company for reasons unknown to us. However, we are handing over the passports back to the embassy to support the amnesty programme.”
Indian Embassy second secretary R Raghunathan said it is important for employers to hand over the passports of their legal employees, not only the illegal workers, to their owners.
“Passport is the property of the person for whom it is issued by the respective governments,” he noted.
“Serious security implications are involved if the employers hold it back illegally when the workers leave the country with the outpasses issued by the embassies, under the amnesty.”
Mr Radhi said the government had repeatedly made it clear that no employer has the right to hold the workers’ passports.
soman@gdn.com.bh