Bahrain to ban transporting labourers in open trucks

Manama: Bahrain, under international pressure to improve its record in fighting human trafficking, is working on ways to enforce a ban on transporting labourers in open trucks, labour minister Majeed Al Alawi has said.

"The labour and interior ministries are working closely on the necessary measures to ensure that labourers are transported in buses and not in trucks. We are concerned about their well-being and their safety," the minister said yesterday in a query about the measures taken by Bahrain to protect the rights of foreign labourers.

Although the practice is illegal, thousands of workers, mostly from south Asia, are driven to their worksites in open trucks every morning, exposing them to the harsh weather conditions prevailing in the Gulf and to fatal road accidents.

In October 2006, three workers were killed and 28 were injured when the truck carrying them collided with a tractor trailer. Three weeks earlier, 28 workers were injured when two trucks collided.

Thousands of labourers early this month staged strikes asking for better living conditions and increases in their wages. They eventually resumed work after reaching settlements with their employers.

"The government is genuinely keen on improving the situation and protecting the rights of foreign labourers in accordance with international standards," Al Alawi said in his answer to a question by Shura Council member Faisal Fouladh.

"There are frequent inspection visits to their quarters to check their living conditions and hotlines have been set up to receive complaints about any form of harassment."

Other measures to protect labourers was the imposition last year of a ban on working in open areas between noon and 4pm during the months of July and August when soaring temperatures reach 50C , he said.

The ban was largely followed, but the ministry said that prosecutors filed charges against 160 construction companies for flouting the ban.

"We now hold regular meetings with diplomats from countries with high figures of workers in Bahrain in order to address all labour issues. We have now set up a permanent committee to tackle problems, particularly those arising from strikes," said the minister.