Human rights abuses in Bahrain

by Esra'a (Bahrain)

I consider the following a human rights abuse which requires more attention than what it’s getting.

Read this embarrassing (but spot on) coverage of what recently happened in Bahrain. The conditions migrant workers live in are unacceptable, but unfortunately, this is happening every other week and we have yet to see any change. Government officials just refuse to take responsibility and there aren’t enough people trying to put them in their place by forcing an executive and useful decision out of them. The level of discrimination is astounding.

Here’s an excellent response in today’s GDN, I only hope that our government officials have their ears open:

Les Horton writes this powerful comment, also in the GDN:

Let’s not pretend that yesterday’s disaster in the Gudaibiya labour camp, in which 16 workers died, was a bolt out of the blue.

The only surprise is that it did not happen sooner, in a country where cramming labourers into accommodation not fit for the purpose is the norm rather than the exception.

The back streets of Manama are full of semi-derelict buildings used as makeshift labour camps, saving employers a fortune in accommodation costs.

There have been several major fires in recent years and the GDN has carried heart-rending reports of workers left sleeping in the streets, because they have nowhere else to go.

I have commented myself in the past that sooner or later luck would run out and there would be massive loss of life.

Now it has happened and authorities cannot say that they were unaware of the danger, particularly as the Labour Ministry announced earlier this year that it was conducting a nationwide inspection of camps, to ensure that they were up to standard.

Last month, the ministry announced that it had inspected two thirds of the country’s 270 labour camps and that conditions in the vast majority had been found to be “satisfactory”.

Bahrain must stop paying lip service to human rights and its own laws and stamp out this wholesale mistreatment of the foreign labour force which has helped to build the country.

Sixteen workers have lost their lives and back home their families will be weeping for them.

Do keep in mind that without foreign labour force, construction in this country would be impossible. Not only are these migrant workers often underpaid, their mistreatment is the only “reward” they get for working towards things only we, the actual citizens, would end up benefiting from. It’s slavery. There is no other way to put it. They escape from their heart-wrenching living conditions only to come here hoping to earn a better lifestyle, not realizing that they’d be tortured further. Tragic stories concerning migrant workers in Bahrain are innumerable. Many things lead to them being treated as 2nd class citizens, and yet, our government doesn’t find the need to take this inexcusable issue seriously. Yeah, every year, we can invest BD 500 million in a mall and BD 350 million on a Formula 1 track, but we don’t dare spend any on buildings that house our foreign workers, whose hands we’re using to keep building the country. That makes perfect sense. We have geniuses running this Kingdom.