No Flexi Permits for runaway workers: LMRA

TDT | Manama

The Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) will not allow runaway workers to regularise their situation by obtaining a Flexi Permit or transferring to a new employer. This was declared yesterday by LMRA CEO Ausamah bin Abdulla Al Absi. The total number of runaway workers reported to the authority does not exceed 0.4 per cent of the total expatriate workforce in the Kingdom, he added.

The LMRA chief said that the Cabinet affirmed that runaway workers will not be allowed to work under a Flexi Permit. Therefore, the only option will be deportation. The employer must file a report with the authority when any of his workers has been absent from work for 15 days or more without notice.

In that case, if the LMRA confirms the filed report, the worker cannot request to transfer to work elsewhere or resume work with his current employer. Thus, whoever violates the regulations of the authority cannot apply for a Flexi Permit.

The LMRA CEO noted that workers who benefit from the amnesty period are those whose permit has expired and their employers have not applied for renewal, as well as those whose employers have canceled their permits without sending them back to their home countries. He highlighted that under the amnesty, which started in April and will continue until the end of the year, 53,000 workers have already regularised their situation.