Expats working in Bahrain public sector may be sacked

The discussion on a proposal, which suggests to sack 50 per cent of non-Bahrainis working in the public sector after the expiry of their work permits, was postponed yesterday. 

Majority of MPs rejected discussing the proposal during yesterday’s session and decided to postpone it to next week’s weekly meet on Tuesday.

MP Jalal Kadhem and four other MPs placed the proposal on the council’s agenda to not renew work contracts of 50pc of expats working in government entities, in order to “give unemployed Bahrainis a chance.”

“There are around 2,500 expats working in all fields of the government sector. They had been employed during the past three years. The government should consider employing national candidates, who are qualified in the same fields that expats are occupying in the public sector,” Kadhem said.

The MP also stressed that this would serve the State’s rationalisation of expenditures schemes, as he claimed that “the cost of hiring an expat is four doubles of hiring a citizen, in regards to several services such as education, health, housing, airplane tickets and more.”

“A simple equation is that each expat would bring their families. Let’s say each has two kids. This means 10,000 non-Bahrainis benefiting from the mentioned services, forming a huge burden on the State budget,” Kadhem explained during the session.

Caption : The Parliament session in progress yesterday