Saudi Gazette report

MANAMA — Runaway workers account for less than half percent of Bahrain’s total expatriate workforce, according to the kingdom’s Labor Market Regulatory Authority CEO Ausamah bin Abdullah Al Absi.

The LMRA CEO said that the total number of runaway workers reported to the authority does not exceed 0.4 percent of the total expatriate workforce in Bahrain, according to Bahrain News Agency.

However, the authority will not allow runaway workers to regularize their situation by obtaining a flexi permit or transferring to a new employer, he added.

Al Absi said that the Cabinet affirmed that runaway workers will not be allowed to work under a flexi permit. Therefore, the only option for them will be deportation.

The employer files a report to the authority when any of his workers have been absent from work for 15 days or more without notice. If the authority confirms it, the worker cannot request for work transfer elsewhere or resume work with his current employer.

Thus, whoever violates the regulations of the authority cannot apply for a flexi permit.

The LMRA CEO noted that workers who benefited from the amnesty period are those whose permit expired and their employers did not renew it and those whose employers have canceled their permits without sending them back to their home countries.

He highlighted that under the amnesty that started in April and will continue to the end of the year, 53,000 workers have regularized their situation.