[ppi] [ppiindia] Bahrain Group Accuses Employers of Blackmailing Migrant Workers

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**http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=70731&d=27&m=9&y=2005

Tuesday, 27, September, 2005 (23, Sha`ban, 1426)


     
      Bahrain Group Accuses Employers of Blackmailing Migrant Workers
      Mazen Mahdi, Arab News 
        
      MANAMA, 27 September 2005 - The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) in 
a report issued yesterday accused sponsors of migrant workers in the Gulf of 
slavery and blackmail practices.

      The BCHR, which continues to operate despite being dissolved by the 
Bahraini government in late 2004, cited how sponsors hold and confiscate 
employees' passports and forbid them from traveling.

      "Such actions are taken in an attempt to blackmail the workers, force 
them to achieve illegitimate advantages or concede their salaries and 
indemnities which were gained through years, taking advantage of their 
desperation in seeing their homes and families after years of separation," the 
report said.

      BCHR vice president Nabeel Rajab said the practice of holding back the 
passport began with the inflow of unskilled laborers from South and East Asia 
at the start of the 1970s.

      "The justification given at the time was that this was necessary for the 
protection of the employer against cases where some workers had fled back to 
their countries after they had violated the law and or committed a crime," he 
said.

      "But this phenomenon increased and became a means of pressuring, 
blackmailing and punishing many migrant workers by their employers with many of 
these victims being migrant women working as domestic helpers," Rajab added.

      He criticized what the BCHR regarded as the "paralyzed" stance of 
official institutions and law-enforcement authorities due to the lack of laws 
to protect the workers against such practices.

      The report also said that trade unions and women's societies have not 
embarked on any serious discussions of the issue nor had they attempted to find 
solutions for the workers, who are mainly women.

      Unofficial figures suggest that there are some 10 million migrant workers 
in the Gulf region, mainly from Southeast Asia and the Indian Subcontinent. The 
vast majority of them work in low-wage jobs or as domestic helps.
     


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