Amnesty Offered to Illegal Workers Under Bahrain's "Easy Exit Strategy" Campaign

In a subsequent development following a previous posting on this blog and information stemming from local news sources in Bahrain, the Kingdom's Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) in cooperation with the General Directorate for Nationality, Passport and Residence, and several local embassies and government ministries has offered amnesty to illegal workers in Bahrain who have overstayed their visas or failed to apply for extensions. Illegal workers will not face prosecution as a result of their illegal status in the kingdom but will be required to pay a fine that will be determined by the LMRA and immigration authorities and will reflect the length of time they have overstayed. Any worker involved in pending court cases will not be considered for deportation. Illegal residents are being encouraged to approach their embassies for assistance in returning home and are reminded of the benefits this temporary immunity from legal prosecution and fast-tracked paperwork processing for their deportation present. Local embassies are also being encouraged to forward lists with specific names of illegal workers to help the Bahraini Government facilitate the campaign. In an article from the TradeArabia News Service, quoted officials from the Indian, Pakistani, and Filipino Embassies underscored the positives associated with this initiative, noting that illegal workers should make best use of this chance to leave Bahrain without being arrested. Embassy involvement in this campaign may encourage more workers to step forward, since many are reluctant to deal with local Bahraini authorities for fear of being arrested by immigration when returning to their countries of origin.

No reliable figures are currently available on the population of Bahrain's illegal workers; however, the TradeArabia News Service cites figures released in early February 2010 by the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions documenting around 46,000 runaways - approximately 10% of the entire workforce.

This "Easy Exit Strategy" to rid Bahrain of illegal workers immediately follows the release of official figures by the LMRA last week stating that for the first time in its history, Bahrain's expat population outnumbers national citizens at a 51.4% majority, and official economic data indicating that employment opportunities for Bahrainis are declining, attributed partly to its endless supply of cheap labor outsourced from abroad.

Two key questions must be asked in response to this campaign. First: Does this new strategy allow the voluntary deportation of illegal workers who remain indebted to an employer under previous contracts? If workers are forced to remain in Bahrain until their debts have been repaid, they are being trafficking and held against their will. If they are given no flexibility to escape the debt or find other means of legal employment to pay back the debt, they risk being arrested when they attempt to secure another job without a legal work visa. Second: What happens if illegal workers are unable to pay their determined "exit fine" if they utilize this "easy exit strategy?" I imagine that much of this burden will fall on the local embassies; however, it is an important point that needs to be considered given the minimal incomes that most migrant workers earn legally-incomes for illegals are bound to be even less given the precarious nature of their status and the leverage employers have (and use) to threaten workers with their illegal status.

Nearly 60,000 workers were voluntarily deported or became legalized in an earlier 5 month campaign organized by the Bahraini Government which ran until January 31 of 2008, coincidentally in the immediate wake of Bahrain's Anti-Trafficking Law; second in the region behind the United Arab Emirates.