Bahrain: 10,000 sailors are not covered by the Labour Code

During the regional conference held in the beginning of this week, on the rights of seafarers in the Arabian Gulf and the Maritime Action Charter, the Secretary General of the General Union of Bahrain Trade Unions, “Hasan Al-Halwaji” affirmed that stranded sailors, in the waters of Bahrain are suffering lot of problems. In fact, they are not covered by the Maritime Labour Law.

The sailors complain about the weakness of the legal structure, especially since Bahrain did not sign the Maritime Labour Agreement of 2006. In fact, this latte aims at establishing guarantees that would protect the basic rights of workers, including the right of freedom of association, the effective recognition of collective agreements and the right to enter negotiations as well as the abolition of compulsory and mandatory labour and implementing safety standards and other gains.

Bahrain currently has 59 merchant ships with 10,000 workers of various nationalities working in unacceptable conditions, where workers have been stranded for months at sea, without pay ,hopeless and deprived of coverage of labour law and labour courts.