Call to change Bahrain housing law rejected

Manama: Bahrain’s Council of Representatives, the elected house of the bicameral parliament, has rejected a proposal to make naturalised Bahrainis wait for 10 years before applying to benefit from a state housing scheme.

Three lawmakers had called for an amendment to the 1976 Housing Law that would ultimately categorise applicants as native Bahrainis and naturalised Bahrainis.

The lawmakers said they wanted to ensure that “original” Bahrainis are not pressed by “naturalised” Bahrainis on the waiting lists of the government-built housing units.

“Such an approach is racist and should not be allowed,” MP Mohammad Al Ammadi said at the weekly session on Tuesday.

MP Mohammad Al Maarifi said that the adoption of the proposal would have “highly negative impacts on citizens and would divide them.”

However, MP Mohammad Milad, one of the lawmakers who called for the amendment, rejected the discrimination charges.

“When we look at the 1963 Citizenship Law, we see that it clearly defines Bahraini citizens as born to a Bahraini father and a Bahraini mother,” he said. “There are also naturalised Bahrainis. This is clear and there is no discrimination when we rfer to them by these definitions.”

Supporting the call for the amendment, MP Ali Al Ataish said that some Bahrainis have been on the waiting list for more than 20 years to get a house.

“The amendment would help organise people’s rights for housing benefits,” he said.

Housing Ministry Legal Consultant Fatima Al Mannai rejected charges by some lawmakers that the ministry was giving preferential treatment to some applicants.

“We go as per the lists and there is no special treatment for Bahrainis at the expense of other Bahrainis, regardless whether they are native Bahrainis or naturalised,” she said.

Claims that some naturalised Bahrainis get their house much faster than the others are not true, she added.

Thousands of Bahrainis have benefitted from the housing units or loans scheme under which a beneficiary pays monthly instalments that do not exceed 25% out of his salary for 25 years.