A FRESH call has gone out for a minimum wage for expatriate workers in Bahrain.

Pakistani Ambassador Jauhar Saleem said that he would like to see such a policy implemented by the government as many foreign workers live on as little as BD150 a month and struggle to survive.

Up to 90,000 Pakistanis live in Bahrain and Mr Saleem said he believes many are on low salaries.

“I know that there are parents on very low incomes who are struggling to pay for their children to get a good education in the right schools. Some are earning as little as BD150 a month and have two or three children to care for,” he said.

“They have very low-salaries and I think this is something that could be looked at by the authorities concerned.

“BD150 is not enough to enable a family to survive in a decent way and I think the idea of a minimum wage is a good one.

“Employers would then be legally obligated to pay people a decent and reasonable salary.”

The envoy said, although he believed Bahrain to be one of the better GCC countries when it came to workers’ rights and their working conditions, more needed to be done to ensure they were treated fairly and not taken advantage of by employers and ‘middle men’.

“Bahrain is one of the better environments for expats to work, conditions here are significantly better than in some other countries,” said Mr Saleem.

“Having said that, there is still a lot of ground to be covered in terms of the many problems being faced by expats and these issues need to be addressed because these expat workers, many of who are from Pakistan, are making a huge contribution to Bahrain and the economy here.

“We need to tackle the exploitation taking place in certain cases by middle men; people who bring these workers here and charge them thousands of dollars to find them a job, which is illegal.

“The workers then arrive, find they are earning a low wage and are then in debt to these people.

“This is one of the reasons we are seeing so many cases of suicide amongst these workers and these incidents are on the rise.

“The majority of these middle men are operating in the country of origin, mainly Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. But the government here needs to put in place mechanisms to protect these people and stop employers confiscating passports as well as educating expats about what health care is available for them in Bahrain.”

Human rights activists have for years campaigned for a minimum wage for foreigners in Bahrain due to low wages paid in some professions.

However, Labour Ministry officials earlier ruled out such a move, saying it could undermine the country’s economy by affecting foreign investment and its competitiveness in the region.

Mr Saleem said the Pakistani Embassy has had to issue hundreds of one-way emergency passports to workers desperate to return home after finding themselves in unsatisfactory employment and having their passports seized by their employer.

It has also noticed a rise in the number of Pakistani worker’s in Bahrain suffering from chronic illness.

“The government is providing healthcare to expat workers but many of them are not familiar with how they can access it,” he said.

“Employers need to make their employees aware of what is available and perhaps provide their own health checks.

“A lot of these workers spend a few years out here, working outside in the hot sun and some get very dehydrated and their health can really deteriorate.”
frances@gdn.com.bh