Bahrain reopens recruitment for Filipino domestic workers

BAHRAIN has reopened its door for Filipinos and other migrant household service workers (HSWS). This after the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported that the Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) of the Kingdom of Bahrain has resumed the recruitment of foreign HSWS on Monday.

Citing the report of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Bahrain, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello

III disclosed that the Bahraini employers prefer Filipinos for the said vacancies.

“As verified by the number of recruitment documents submitted to Polo-bahrain for processing, recruitment agencies expect that the huge gap in the demand specifically for domestic workers, will be filled up by Filipino workers,” Bello said in a news statement issued on Tuesday.

DOLE said the LMRA is now bracing for the expected influx of migrant HSWS in Bahrain because of their high demand in Bahraini households.

The LMRA urged Bahraini employers to only hire foreign HSWS through licensed expatriate employees employment offices “to ensure that mitigation measures against the spread of novel coronavirus disease [Covid-19] are strictly followed and workers’ rights are upheld and protected.”

Last March, the Bahraini government suspended the recruitment of foreign workers because of the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

This resulted to a 9-percent decline in the number of deployed overseas Filipino worker (OFW) from January to June this year to 16,576 from 18,663 in the same period in 2019.

Bahrain only started relaxing its restriction for hiring foreign workers last month with its renewal of the issuance of work permits of expatriate skilled workers on August 9, 2020. It was followed by the lifting of the temporary suspension for the recruitment of migrant HSWS on September 14, 2020.