Crackdown will hit expatriates

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA (BAHRAIN) MAY 31. The havoc caused to the poorer sections of the Asian community in this island by the crackdown on `free visa holders' is bound to extend to other sections of the community as well. While a good many of these `free visa holders' work in the mainstream of the Bahrain economy (earning very little and depriving locals of jobs) some of them provide services more or less exclusively for the middle and upper classes in the expatriate community.

Among the `free visa holders' who work almost exclusively for the expatriate community are the housemaids / house-boys, the local equivalent of Mumbai's dhabawallah and a particular category of drivers.

One cannot hire taxis run by Bahraini nationals to take one's child to school on a regular basis. In the absence of taxi service for this purpose, Asian men, usually Indians or Sri Lankans, offer their vehicles for a fee, which is not very high. These drivers supplement their income by dropping people at their offices, airports, etc. They cater mainly to the expatriate community. Most of them are decent, honest people desperately trying to earn something for the families they have left back home. The crackdown would thus affect UAE expatriate professionals, who neither need nor can afford full-time house- maids or drivers.

But it is not the disruption caused to middle or upper classes that is the issue. The point is that these housemaids and drivers provide services to the expatriate community without depriving the Bahrainis or other Gulf nationals of jobs. These jobs will never be done by the local people and it is the most harmless form of providing employment to the needy from poor countries.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Amnesty finds rights violations throughout India
Next     : Commission to implement decisions