Ninety per cent of undocumented workers from Bahrain’s second largest expatriate community are set to regularise their legal status, it has been revealed.
An estimated 150,000 Bangladeshis live in the country, who also constitute a major chunk of the 60,000-plus undocumented workers from different nationalities.
The Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) in April announced a nine-month amnesty for migrant workers, who can leave the country without paying fines, or find jobs, until December 31.
Bangladesh Ambassador Dr Nazrul Islam yesterday said there has been a significant drop in the number of illegal workers post Covid-19.
“After the pandemic broke out, the Bahrain government announced a general amnesty for irregular workers,” the diplomat said.
“The LMRA launched the campaign and 90pc of illegal Bangladeshis – or about 40,000 workers without valid visas – have regularised their status since then.
“The rest of our community will be regularised (by December 31).”
The diplomat was among the speakers at a webinar, organised by the Bahrain Centre for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat) to release findings of a survey conducted in co-operation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bahrain.
The online multilingual survey (English, Arabic and Bengali) covered 660 Bahrainis and 283 Bangladeshis, considering the latter represent a sizeable chunk of the kingdom’s workforce.
The study featured 14 questions on how the pandemic affected the income, spending habits and health of participants. The data was compared with adult samples from the UK and the US.
“The findings revealed the support the community (Bangladeshi) requires on information to find suitable employment,” stated Dr Islam.
“We launched an online portal to create a database of jobseekers, with about 1,000 of our nationals registering and many securing jobs.”
The embassy also launched a skills training programme for their nationals with valid visa, to help them find new jobs.
Also speaking at the webinar was Derasat director of research and studies Dr Omar Al Ubaydli, who highlighted the severe impact of the pandemic on Bangladeshis, in particular.
“In the UK and the US, between 65pc and 70pc had a primary job before the pandemic – that later dropped to around 60pc,” Dr Al Ubaydli said.
“We saw a large divergence in Bahrain’s case with 4pc drop (59pc pre-pandemic and 55pc post Covid-19) compared with 22pc drop among Bangladeshis here (81pc before Covid-19 to 59pc).”
He said the findings showed that Bahrainis were less affected compared with their UK and US counterparts, while Bangladeshis residing here with lower salaries and skill sets bore the brunt in recent months.
Dr Al Ubaydli said the survey aimed to find out whether social lives of individuals took a hit – whether lesser time was allocated for friends and hobbies and if people consulted their family or non-governmental organisations for financial support.
“Data showed that the Bangladeshi community desired support to secure employment and rent, which represents a high consumption of their household budget.”
He said in case of Bahrainis loan deferrals were the desired choice of support.
The survey also revealed that Bahrainis were not exercising as much as they did prior to the Covid outbreak, especially with gyms closed and hot weather conditions.
“In the category on dealing with financial difficulties, Bahraini respondents asked friends or family for assistance, while Bangladeshis decreased their spending as a way to deal with the challenges,” the expert said.Data also indicated that women desired psychological support while men preferred economic assistance.
Yesterday’s webinar was moderated by UNDP Resident Representative Stefano Pettinato who praised Bahrain’s efforts to tackle Covid-19.
Other speakers at the virtual event were UK Deputy Ambassador Stuart Summers and US Embassy’s political and economic officer Rabia Qureshi.
The experts expect the economy to recover during the first quarter of next year. However, they added that it also depended on the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine.sandy@gdn.com.bh
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