Manama: A spokesperson for Bahrain’s traffic directorate has denied reports that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) citizens were banned from leaving the country until they cleared their traffic fines.
Reports in GCC newspapers last week said that Bahrain, Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have started the implementation of a decision not to allow GCC nationals and other foreigners to depart unless they paid in full the fines imposed on them by the local traffic police.
The GCC, established in 1981, comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
However, Osama Bahar, the head of the traffic culture department in Bahrain, said the reports about Bahrain were not true.
“The reports about a traffic-related travel ban imposed by Bahrain on GCC nationals and foreigners are not true,” he said.
“We are fully committed to the GCC agreement that stipulates sending the traffic fines of GCC citizens in Bahrain to their home countries. The travellers are not stopped at the exit points and there is no ban on them leaving the kingdom,” he said, quoted by Bahraini daily Al Ayam.
The official said that the heads of the general directorates for traffic in the GCC would meet next month to discuss the recommendations of a meeting held last month in Kuwait regarding the unification of measures to collect fines from GCC drivers booked in any of the six member countries.
Ali Al Rashidi, the spokesperson for traffic in Saudi Arabia, last week said that a new experiment on making GCC drivers pay their fines before leaving the kingdom was being implemented at some border points.
“The measures will be soon expanded to cover all border points and will be applied to all visitors in line with the regulations,” he said. “The fines will be entered quickly into the electronic system to ensure the driver who committed the violation does not leave the country before paying them,” he said.
