Manama: All new Indian migrants to Bahrain must now have their job contracts vetted by their embassy in order to get a work visa. It is part of a new system called eMigrate, put in place by the Indian government in a bid to keep track of its nationals working abroad. Indian Ambassador Alok Kumar Sinha revealed details of the new initiative during the embassy’s monthly Open House held yesterday. 

“The eMigrate system has been in place since last month and we are getting a good response,” he said. “Now we have the details of every new Indian worker who comes to Bahrain,  including the semi-skilled.”

He said that the Indian government was keen to monitor all its citizens who travelled abroad for work, and explained that this new system would see employers upload details of job contacts to a website prior to a vetting process undertaken by the embassy. “The embassy has to vet all job contracts, which should include the full  terms and conditions – and a work visa will only be granted once this process is complete,” said Mr Sinha.

“Details of salaries, passports and other information of both the employer and the employee will be shared online through this system. “So from now on, if any Indian worker is recruited the application should be processed under the eMigrate project.” Mr Sinha said that the new initiative would help protect the rights of workers and create a database of all Indians working in Bahrain.

“We also want to encourage Indians already in the country to voluntarily register their details with the embassy so that we have their records,” he said, adding that officials were “all geared up” to assist workers who want to return home or legalise their stay under the latest six-month amnesty, announced recently by the government. Under the terms of the amnesty, any illegal resident who leaves Bahrain voluntarily will be able to return once they have secured legitimate employment, which means there is no fear of being blacklisted.

In addition, those who find a new employer willing to supply them with a visa during the amnesty period will be able to legalise their stay without the consent of their previous employer. Illegal foreign residents who have court cases against them – including travel bans for outstanding debts – are not covered by the amnesty. Mr Sinha said that the embassy had distributed multilingual brochures explaining amnesty rules to social clubs and workers and planned to hold additional awareness programmes, in a bid to spread the message.

The Open House yesterday also dealt with cases related to passport confiscation, travel bans and a stateless 16-year-old.

sandy@gdn.com.bh