Bahrain: MP urges ‘deterrent’ steps against illegals

Cairo: A Bahraini lawmaker has accused illegal migrant workers of tarnishing his country’s image and called for “deterrent” steps against them.

“There is no deterrence against the foreign street vendors seen at traffic lights, outside mosques or on road sides,” MP Mamdouh Al Saleh said, according to the Bahraini newspaper Al Bilad.

He called on the government to use all “legal deterrent tools” against the irregular expatriates.

“They are tarnishing Bahrain’s image. We don’t accept to see Bahrain’s image distorted in this way as if we were in a developing country,” he added.

There has been no government’s comment on his remarks. The number of illegal migrants in Bahrain is not known.

Foreigners make up 52.6 per cent of Bahrain’s overall population of 1.5 million, according to the kingdom’s latest official census.