Cops to turn counsellors to tackle illegal workers

Manama : Muharraq police have come up with a novel approach to tackle illegal ‘free visa’ workers in the governorate through counselling and guiding.

Discussions are underway with the authorities in Muharraq to implement new measures to tackle the illegal workers in a more humane way. 

Muharraq Governorate Police Director General Brigadier Fawaz Al Hassan said that an approach focused on ‘counselling and guiding’ will help many of those workers who end up in illegal status after being tricked by agents. 

“The intention is not to nab and hand them over to the authorities concerned to be deported. We are looking at bringing them in and correcting them. This is because we believe that such people who have no work will, sooner or later, graduate to becoming criminals,” Brigadier Fawaz Al Hassan said.

 “We do not know what they are doing and how and where they are living. We just find them loitering around, doing odd jobs and somehow making ends meet,” Brigadier Fawaz Al Hassan said.

“We would want to know what they are up to, guide and counsel them, get in touch with their sponsors and employers and try and correct their status,” Brigadier Fawaz Al Hassan said, adding that in their opinion, nabbing and deporting illegal free visa workers is the last possible step the authorities can do.

In most cases, such workers have been tricked into coming to Bahrain and are victims, Brigadier Brigadier Fawaz Al Hassan said. 

“They have sold their land, jewellery, houses and other property to pay agents to come here and work and when they find that they have no job, they are bound to take to crime sooner or later since they have to repay the loans they have taken from banks in the Kingdom or send money home to their families,” Brigadier Fawaz Al Hassan said.

 “We are looking to stop crimes from happening. If such people are allowed to remain as they are, they would be a danger to society sooner or later. This would lead to an unsafe and unhealthy environment in our society,” Brigadier Fawaz Al Hassan said.