The Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) declared the issuance of judicial convictions against 20 defendants in cases related to the issuance of work permits for expatriate workers without need for them and trading in work permits.
The total fines amounted to BHD 441,000, while the investigation is still ongoing across a range of other cases based on the Authority’scommitment to implement the directives of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to address illegal practices that would affect the competitiveness, fairness, and flexibility of the Bahrain labour market.
The LMRA confirmed that these convictions were achieved by the efforts of the concerned parties in the Authority, in cooperation with the relevant government agencies in the Ministry of Interior and the General Directorate of Investigations and Criminal Evidence, in addition to the Public Prosecution and the judiciary.
The Authority referred 441 cases to the Public Prosecution related to violations of the provisions of Law No.(19) of 2006 on the organization of the labour market, in particular the provisions of Article (23), paragraph (c), as amended by Law No. (40) of 2014, which stipulates that “an employer is prohibited from submitting data, information or documents contrary to the truth in order to obtain a work permit without an actual need for it, and he is prohibited from retaining a work permit whenever they cease the need for it”.
Cases were referred to judiciary by the Public Prosecution after they completed their investigation and ruled to indite the defendants for the retention of 321 expatriate work permits without necessity or cause.
The defendants were sentenced with fines summing up to BHD 441,000, in one of the largest convictions in the Kingdom of Bahrain of this nature. Other cases of this kind are still pending with the concerned courts.
