B’desh embassy plea on Manama hiring rules

Manama / Tribune News Service

A foreign embassy has appealed to Bahraini authorities to relax recruitment procedures for its citizens, which it claimed led to exploitation and were so time-consuming that diplomats had no time for anything else.
It has emerged that unscrupulous agents are conning Bangladeshi labourers out of almost a month’s salary to complete the procedures, which also swamp the Bangladesh Embassy with allegedly unnecessary paperwork.
The embassy must approve any new recruitment of its citizens twice, despite authorities in Dhaka attesting visa application documents, and imposes a fee of just BD2 to do so.
However, it has emerged agents in Bahrain and Bangladesh are charging unwitting applicants more than BD50 each to complete formalities on their behalf – meaning they are being overcharged by at least 2,400 per cent. Most of those being duped are applying for labourer jobs that pay between BD70 to BD90 per month.
“Middlemen, visa traders and clearing agents are charging these workers over BD50 to complete their application process, including the embassy’s authentication,” a Bangladesh Embassy official told the GDN.
“The actual attestation fee is BD2 and what we have seen for years now is exploitation of poor labourers. “They are desperate to come here and have paid close to BD1,500 (to get a visa) for a job in Bahrain. “But then these agents in Bahrain and Dhaka force them to pay BD50 or more to complete the visa application process.”
He said applicants preferred to let agents complete the process, rather than do it themselves, as they are unfamiliar with the procedures. The rule stating all Bangladeshi visa applicants must be approved by the embassy was imposed in 2008 by Bahrain’s Interior Ministry, after a Bangladeshi mechanic murdered a Bahraini customer by slitting his throat with a hacksaw following a row over payment. Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa initially imposed a complete ban on all Bangladeshi recruitment, which lasted two months. However, the ban was lifted on the condition that new recruits should be aged over 25 and have their applications attested by the embassy and authorities in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.
A diplomat at the Bangladesh Embassy said he was now swamped with applications as a result of the rule, claiming staff were working two shifts just to sign all the paperwork. “I end up signing around 1,000 applications a day and have no time to focus on labour or consular matters,” he said. He also claimed the process was unnecessary, since all the paperwork had already been attested by Bangladeshi authorities in Dhaka.
“The Bangladesh Embassy has to attest every applicant’s document so they can be cleared for the visa process,” said the diplomat. “The set of documents includes passport, birth certificate, police clearance certificate and other papers, which have already been attested by the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Bangladesh.
“We at the embassy are once again signing these documents, which should not be required.” He added the requirement for additional signatures from the embassy led to delays, while the number of documents waiting to be attested was building.
“Our offices are filled with thousands of applications and the number keeps increasing,” he said. Under the present system, embassy staff compile attested documents submitted by an employer or recruitment agent, which are then authenticated by a diplomat – having already been attested in Dhaka.
The application is then electronically submitted by the employer to the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), but must then be authenticated a second time by the embassy before final approval is granted. “Since 2008 when the new provisions were introduced, our job is to sign these applicants daily and we have no time for other issues,” said the diplomat.
“We raised the issue at least four times with authorities, asking them to scrap the embassy clearance stage, but have not received any response.”
The diplomat also claimed exploitation of Bangladeshi nationals could be avoided if the authentication procedure at the embassy was scrapped.