Mr. Ghazi Al-Mirbati
13 June 2010
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its deep concern regarding the Gulf Air company’s dismissal of the vice-president of its trade union Mr. Ghazi Al-Mirbati in May 2010, allegedly due to inciting the employees against the company, and leaking the company’s private information to the press.
Mr. Ghazi Al-Mirbati
13 June 2010
The Bahrain Center for Human Rights expresses its deep concern regarding the Gulf Air company’s dismissal of the vice-president of its trade union Mr. Ghazi Al-Mirbati in May 2010, allegedly due to inciting the employees against the company, and leaking the company’s private information to the press.
One of the local newspapers[1] ran a story on April 13 about two senior managers in Gulf Air’s receiving a total of 440,000 BHD in conciliation for their resignation. The management took advantage of this news to accuse Mr. Al-Mirbati of leaking confidential information to the press. The management handed over the dismissal order to Mr. Al-Mirbati after 5 minutes of ending a meeting held between the union and the company’s management; to look into the workers’ retirement.
Al-Mirbati is considered to be a known defender of the rights of workers in the company which has been facing heavy losses for several years, believed to be due to consecutive corruption and losses which the company could not reduce because of its connection with some of the influential people in the country.
Besides his labour activism in the union, Al-Mirbati is considered to be one of the prominent environmental activists in Bahrain, who have worked on highlighting many environmental files over the last years especially the ones related to the industrial area surrounding Al-Ma’ameer village and the gases emitting from it, as well as shedding light on the drawbacks of land reclamation on the environment and its negative impact on village life and the Bahraini areas. His movements and defence of environmental rights caused embarrassment to the authorities over the years, due to revealing a lot of matters which the regular citizen overlooks.
This was not the first time where a unionist is targeted; Mrs. Najiya Abdul-Ghaffar – vice-president of the post union – was suspended from work in a similar incident. Charges were also fabricated against some unionists in the Bahrain Nursing Society, mainly against Mr. Ibrahim Al-Dimistani and Rola Al-Saffar. Ibrahim Al-Dimistani was cast into prison two months ago for curing a young man who was injured in the demonstrations in the country.
The BCHR believes that the decision to suspend Al-Mirbati from work, was made to silence him from his activity in demanding the rights of the workers in Gulf Air company and to prevent other activists from taking the same path, especially in the issue of Al-Ma’ameer’s contamination – a residential area surrounded with factories – where the activist Ghazi Al-Mirbati and others attempted to bring the case to international organizations, after the local attempts to solve the case failed.
This dismissal decision is considered a blatant violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, and of local legislations. This decision also gives a clear picture of the attempts to systematically suppress all forms of expression of opinion in Bahrain.
Based on all the above, the BCHR demands the following:
1. Allow Mr. Ghazi Al-Mirbati to practice his work in Gulf Air company;
2. Not to carry out any arbitrary measures against Al-Mirbati and to allow him to express his opinion freely;
3. Carry out legislative amendments to secure citizens’ rights working n the public and private sector to practice their right in expressing their opinion.
[1]Al-wasat newspaper