By MOHAMMED AL A’ ALI
Published: 5th October 2007
BAHRAIN and other Gulf countries must address the level of expatriates in their countries, as they achieve more legal rights, says Labour Minister Dr Majeed Al Alawi.GCC countries will soon have to fall in line with scores of other countries and sign international treaties which give expatriate workers and their families equal rights to their own citizens, he said.
International conventions demand equal rights in terms of housing, education, health services, citizenship and in other areas, he told a gathering at the Bahrain Bar Society, Adliya.
By MOHAMMED AL A’ ALI
Published: 5th October 2007
BAHRAIN and other Gulf countries must address the level of expatriates in their countries, as they achieve more legal rights, says Labour Minister Dr Majeed Al Alawi.GCC countries will soon have to fall in line with scores of other countries and sign international treaties which give expatriate workers and their families equal rights to their own citizens, he said.
International conventions demand equal rights in terms of housing, education, health services, citizenship and in other areas, he told a gathering at the Bahrain Bar Society, Adliya.
Fifty countries have already signed a convention for equal treatment issued by the UN, which means that soon Bahrain and other GCC countries will have to follow suit, said Dr Al Alawi.
“It is not just the worker getting the same treatment, but his whole family,” he said.
“Soon we will be also obliged to give nationalities to expatriates after they complete five years in the country and joining this convention or any other convention will not be voluntary. It will be compulsory, if not tomorrow, then the next.
“Bahrain and other GCC countries at the moment should be looking for ways to organise legal relationships with expatriate workers, who are currently invading our societies.
“These workers, who are mostly unskilled, are a problem we need to address, because our GCC identity is on the brink of being destroyed.”
Dr Al Alawi said that 80 per cent of the expatriate labour force in Bahrain and the GCC as a whole is unskilled or semi-skilled.
“This is why His Majesty King Hamad supported the six-year cap proposal to protect our region and to fix the current situation from further deterioration,” he said.
Dr Al Alawi said the King put the proposal before the 2005 GCC Summit in Abu Dhabi.
It suggested that expatriate workers be allowed to rotate round the GCC countries, spending a maximum of six years in each. No agreement had yet been reached on the issue.
This proposed cap would not have included professional expatriates, such as engineers, doctors, accountants and others, said Dr Al Alawi.
He said that a lot of measures have been taken to protect the local labour market.
“We have already started rehabilitating and training Bahrainis through proper training programmes,” said Dr Al Alawi
“This has come after consultations with the three parties concerned – workers’ representatives, employers and us – to ensure that we are going in the same direction and that we work to achieve together, something that was the main reason behind the National Employment Project.”
He said that the project had improved the working environment in many private sector establishments, with workers’ vocational and financial circumstances being enhanced.
“This is mainly due to the awareness many Bahraini establishments have of the important role Bahrainisation plays in their development and that of the country,” said Dr Al Alawi.
“Today, we have 460 private sector establishments who have joined the BD200 minimum wage scheme and we hope that other establishments will come forward soon.”
alaali@gdn.com.bh
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