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Bangladeshis crowd around Rahman, at the embassy

Amnesty rush at four embassies in Bahrain

MANAMA, July 2, 2015

Hundreds of illegal foreign residents flocked to their embassies in Bahrain yesterday (July 1) on the first day of a six-month amnesty, which allows them to return home without facing penalties.

Diplomats at the Bangladeshi, Philippine, Indian and Pakistani Embassies said they were overwhelmed by the response, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

The amnesty, which will remain in place until December 31, also allows illegal expatriate residents to legalise their stay with a new employer without being punished for residency offences.

Meanwhile, those who do leave will be able to return if they can secure legitimate employment.

The Bangladesh Embassy, which says more than half of the estimated 61,000 illegal residents in Bahrain are Bangladeshi, was swamped with people looking to take advantage of the amnesty.

“We have instructed our staff to work extra hours to help workers who want to leave under the general amnesty,” said embassy labour counsellor Mohammed Islam.

He estimated that as many as 36,000 Bangladeshis were living in Bahrain illegally, having either run away from their employers or overstayed their visas.

“We have the largest number of irregular workers in Bahrain compared to other communities,” he said.

Islam and Bangladesh Ambassador, retired Major General K M Mominur Rahman, addressed a large crowd of Bangladeshis who gathered at the embassy yesterday.

They urged illegal residents to leave during the amnesty if they were unable to legalise their stay, as the opportunity might not come again.

Islam also told the GDN that the embassy was no longer processing paperwork for new recruits from Bangladesh.

The embassy must first attest documentation before a company can hire staff from Bangladesh, but the embassy wants companies to instead recruit from the pool of illegal Bangladeshis already in the country.

“We are creating a database of all those illegal workers who want to stay in Bahrain and this will be supplied to different companies to recruit those individuals,” he said.

Four counters were set up at the embassy to help those seeking to benefit from the amnesty, but more staff will now be assigned based on the large volume of people who came forward yesterday.

In addition to distributing materials raising awareness of the amnesty, the embassy is also using a bulk SMS service covering thousands of Bangladeshis.

“We will be visiting different labour camps and will also spread the message in mosques during Ramadan,” said Islam.

Information

A Philippine Embassy spokesman also reported a rush of people seeking to take advantage of the amnesty yesterday.

“We are really busy with over 100 people here at the embassy who want to leave the country or want more information about the amnesty,” he said.

Meanwhile, Indian Embassy first secretary Ram Singh said 20 applications had been received from workers for whom emergency documents would be issued allowing them to leave.

Pakistan Embassy community welfare attaché Maqsood Shah said it had received a “positive response”.

“People have started to call us and inquire about the general amnesty, which is a good sign of confidence building,” he said.

“We received 10 calls and explained the rules of this scheme, which the embassy supports.

“It’s still the first day and we feel in the coming days apprehension among those workers will go down.”

Under the amnesty any illegal resident who leaves voluntarily will be able to return to Bahrain once they had 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.

However, those who have court cases against them – including a travel ban for outstanding debts – are not covered by the amnesty.

Bahrain last held an amnesty for illegal residents in 2010, when around 6,000 people left the country. - TradeArabia News Service




Tags: Embassy | amnesty | Illegal | foreign | immigrant |

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