GOB PLANS AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL EXPATS IN AUGUST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MANAMA 000696 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/25/2017 TAGS: ECON ELAB PGOV PREL PHUM BA HUMRIT SUBJECT: GOB PLANS AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL EXPATS IN AUGUST Classified By: Ambassador William T. Monroe, reasons 1.4(b) and (d). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) The GOB has announced plans to offer a six-month amnesty for illegal expatriate workers beginning August 1. Illegal workers will reportedly be permitted to legitimize their status or return to their home country without being subject to overstay fines. It is still unclear whether the amnesty will be offered to anyone who is in Bahrain illegally, or only to those who at one time had legal worker status. Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) Acting Chief Executive Ali Ahmed Radhi recently told PolOff that the amnesty was an important part of the labor reform process that also includes making use of new technology to increase productivity and transparency for the benefit of both employers and workers. Embassy officials from source countries speculate that if the amnesty does not include illegal expatriates from all visa types, there would merely be a shift of illegal workers to fill the vacancies created by those who left under the amnesty. Migrant worker advocates express concerns about information reaching those who truly need it, including household workers who have limited access to information. They also urged that the information be very clear about the policy so illegal workers could make informed decisions. -------------- General Amnesty -------------- ¶2. (U) Following the lead of fellow GCC states Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and UAE, Bahrain announced plans for a general amnesty for illegal expatriate workers for a six-month period beginning August 1. The program was initially announced June 6 by Minister of Labor and LMRA chairman Dr. Abdulmajeed Al Alawi, yet many details of the program are still not clear. Under the program illegal workers will reportedly be permitted to legitimize their status or return to their home country without being subject to overstay fines. According to press reports, the amnesty program will be coordinated between the LMRA and the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence (GDNPR),Bahrain's immigration officials. GDNPR Assistant Undersecretary for Port of Entry and Follow Up Colonel Yousif Al Ghatam has said that the program would primarily be for workers who arrived on work visas who then overstayed illegally, but that the GDNPR was working on including those who had arrived in Bahrain on tourist visas who have stayed on in the country illegally. -------------- LMRA Wants a Clean Slate -------------- ¶3. (C) Speaking with PolOff June 26, LMRA Acting Chief Executive Ali Ahmed Radhi said that the amnesty was an important part of Bahrain's plan for labor reform, supporting the eventual overhaul of the sponsorship system for workers. He said that a pilot program of just under 20 private companies had been operational with the LMRA since January, and since the beginning of May expatriate workers in the government sector had been brought into the LMRA's system. Radhi explained that the system had been designed to leverage technology to provide incentives to employers to support the new system, to streamline the process to decrease incentives for workers to leave their employers indiscriminately, and to strengthen the tools used to enforce new regulations. He said that the amnesty will help to clean up the labor pool so that, when the program goes fully live in early 2008, the LMRA can take over the entire expatriate labor administration process as smoothly as possible. Through the six months of the amnesty, the LMRA will begin working with individual companies to regularize any workers that may be out of status or offer them the option to return to their home country. Radhi admitted that LMRA's focus in the amnesty was to sort out the status of previously legal workers, but said that the GDNPR was working on the issue of amnesty for holders of other visa types. -------------- View from the Embassies -------------- ¶4. (C) Meeting with PolOff June 21, Bangladesh Embassy First Secretary Shameem Al Mamun said that the program, as SIPDIS described in the press and in meetings he had attended with government officials, would not sufficiently bring about satisfactory results. The program should include holders of all visa classes who are currently residing illegally and not MANAMA 00000696 002 OF 003 just those who previously had valid work permits. Al Mamun estimated that between five and ten thousand of the 75,000 Bangladeshi workers in Bahrain did not have legal status to remain in the country. He wondered aloud whether the GOB truly wanted to "clean the deck" or merely wanted to do an "eyewash." He speculated that if the government does not give the opportunity for the maximum number of illegal workers to depart, there will be a new round of illegal workers who remain in the country that will simply fill in the positions vacated by those who took advantage of the amnesty. Al Mamun expressed some concern at the potential number of Bangladeshis that will want to return but will not have sufficient money to purchase tickets to travel home, noting that his government had not yet adequately addressed this issue. ¶5. (C) In a discussion with PolOff July 20, Pakistan Embassy Community Welfare Officer Habib Gilani said that the Embassy had received a letter from Ministry of Labor Undersecretary Shaikh Abdulrahman Al Khalifa stating that the Ministry would host a meeting with officials from the embassies of labor-sending countries in the near future to discuss the amnesty. He said that it was his understanding that only those with previous valid work permits would be able to avail themselves of the amnesty but that this was inadequate and would not solve the problem of illegal workers. Gilani expected that the Embassy could see up to 2,000 of the approximately 45,000 Pakistanis in Bahrain come forward to make use of the amnesty. He said a common story is that manual laborers begin working in Bahrain legally, most often working long hours for minimal pay, but then leave their employers secretly to take up work elsewhere that either pays more money or requires fewer hours of work, so they can take a second job to augment their income. -------------- Concerns About Implementation -------------- ¶6. (U) Human rights activists have encouraged the government to make every effort to spread the word about the upcoming amnesty, so that the word will reach those who need to take advantage of it most. The government should distribute information printed in several languages to reach those who do not understand English or Arabic. Activists also suggested that social clubs take the initiative to inform their communities about the procedures once they have been publicized. They pointed out that many household workers have limited exposure to the outside and limited access to information, so awareness campaigns should endeavor to reach workers in their homes in addition to their places of work. Activists have also called attention to the problem of employers who exploit workers and who may not want their workers to participate in the amnesty, saying that government authorities need to make sure these employers comply with the law. ¶7. (C) Meeting with PolOff June 24, Migrant Worker Protection Society officials Marietta Dias and Mehru Vesuvala expressed concern that embassies would not be prepared to deal with the volume of workers who respond to the offer of amnesty. They said they were unaware of preparations by any embassy to augment their staffing to assist with the workers, including the Indian Embassy, which provides services to the over 250,000 workers it claims are in Bahrain. Dias said that it was very important that the government's policy be crystal clear so that workers considering the amnesty can make an informed decision. She said it was not only critical that people who entered Bahrain on tourist visas and overstayed be included in the amnesty, but also that the practice of granting influential individuals the authority to "invite" large numbers of visitors on tourist visas had to stop. She explained that some people granted this authority were "selling" tourist visas to visitors, who would then go into the labor market to search for a job. Vesuvala anticipated that among amnesty respondents will be workers who are legal but unhappy with their work; they will try to use the amnesty to break their contracts to return home, thereby increasing the numbers even further. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶8. (C) The benefit of Bahrain's amnesty program will be proportional to how comprehensive it is. If in the end it is too focused and only seeks to resolve the status of previously legal workers, the government will not have seriously faced the problem of illegal workers and will only have shaken up the labor force a bit. In the spirit of its desire to do more to combat trafficking, the GOB should MANAMA 00000696 003 OF 003 implement the program as broadly and inclusively as possible to provide an opportunity to those who are in marginal situations and vulnerable to being trafficked to return to their countries without the fear of fines or punishment. ********************************************* ******** Visit Embassy Manama's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/manama/ ********************************************* ******** MONROE