BACHELORS FACE BAN
By MOHAMMED AL A’ALI
Published: 25th April 2007
MANAMA: A new law banning expatriate bachelors from living in residential areas could be implemented soon.Parliament approved the law at its weekly session yesterday, as well as a proposal banning labour camps from residential areas and re-locating existing ones to industrial areas.
The Municipalities and Agriculture Ministry and the five municipal councils have backed the law and proposal, saying it would help solve problems many people were facing. However, parliament chairman Khalifa Al Dhahrani warned MPs against voting on the proposal, claiming it would cause more harm than good.
BACHELORS FACE BAN
By MOHAMMED AL A’ALI
Published: 25th April 2007
MANAMA: A new law banning expatriate bachelors from living in residential areas could be implemented soon.Parliament approved the law at its weekly session yesterday, as well as a proposal banning labour camps from residential areas and re-locating existing ones to industrial areas.
The Municipalities and Agriculture Ministry and the five municipal councils have backed the law and proposal, saying it would help solve problems many people were facing. However, parliament chairman Khalifa Al Dhahrani warned MPs against voting on the proposal, claiming it would cause more harm than good.
“Those old houses rented out as bachelor residences are owned by the Sunni and Jaffari Waqf (endowment) Directorates, which means that blocking companies from renting them would mean stopping a source of income,” he told MPs.
“This is the source of income of many religious institutes, widows and children.”
Al Menbar MP Shaikh Nasser Al Fadhala said that parliament was not against expatriates or endowment rentals. “MPs are not speaking about one or two bachelors, we are talking about 100 labourers crammed in an old house, with 200 others taking their place in shifts.”
He said that bachelors also use these houses to make alcohol, run prostitute rings or to rape children and housemaids.
© Gulf Daily News