The Migrant Workers Committee of the General Confederation of Bahrain Trade Unions organized a meeting last week at the Confederation’s headquarters, which included representatives from five communities of migrant workers in Bahrain and the local press.
The representatives talked about the Filipino, Cameroonian, Nepalese, Kenyan and Indian communities to the journalist Raji Unikrishnan from the GDN newspaper and the journalist Sharon Joseph from Al Bilad newspaper about their concerns and difficulties in light of the repercussions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic and commercial circumstances.
Representatives of the migrant workers that were present confirmed that the consequences of Coronvirus led many migrant workers to lose their jobs, especially those working in the security, hospitality and retail sector, and they became without decent housing or food, in addition to another number who were either not paid or only got part of their wages and were forced to take an unpaid leave.
“In addition to our commitment to our families in our countries, we are required to repay loan instalments for banks, credit cards, housing rent, electricity and telephone bills at a time when we have become without work or pay.”, they added.
Migrant workers representatives also appealed to banks and credit card companies to postpone their loan instalments dues similar to their Bahraini counterparts. They also appealed to their lessors to cooperate with them and delay rents payment and telecommunications companies to not cut their phone lines due to the late bills’ payment, so that they can communicate with their families in these difficult circumstances.
They also raised concern about suicidal tendencies among them due to these distressful times as there have been some registered attempts in the past few days.
As for domestic workers, one of the community representatives expressed fears on some of the effects they have to endure, such as the non-payment of their wages, which are already low, and the difficulty to reach them to accurately know their conditions.
#Bahrain #Coronavirus #COVID19 #MigrantWorkers #Difficulties #Help
English 
العربية