OFW Carlo Dayrit Jose, in his late forties, has been imprisoned in Jaw prison, Bahrain’s central jail. He was convicted on the murder of OFW Maricel Garduque in 2000 after a heated argument broke out between them resulting in the woman’s killing.

As per court records, in the same year he has also been diagnosed with Psychological schizophrenia.

According to Bahrain’s Daily Tribune news reporter Mr. Roberto Carillo, OFW Jose is currently ‘the only Filipino to ever receive a life sentence from a Bahraini Court.’ Mr. Carillo conveyed OFW Jose’s pleading for assistance to John Leonard Monterona, Saudi-based Migrante-ME leader.

“I was informed that in 2010, OFW Jose obtained a letter of forgiveness from the mother of the victim in the Philippines and this was forwarded to the Royal court for appropriate action but until now nothing happened,” said John Leonard Monterona, M-ME regional coordinator.

Monterona said OFW Jose has been expecting that he will be released then since he obtained a written forgiveness from the kin of the aggrieved family by virtue of a Royal pardon which the Bahraini Royal family grants every year.

Speaking to Daily Tribune’s Carillo, OFW Jose said, “Almost two years and ten pardons have already passed since the forgiveness letter has been given to the Royal Court. Every time, my hopes are up that I will be included in the distribution of the royal pardons.”

Monterona calls on the Aquino III administration through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the PH embassy in Bahrain, and to Vice President Jejomar Binay, presidential adviser on OFWs concerns, to attend and closely follow the application of OFW Jose’s inclusion in the upcoming Royal pardon.

“We came to know that the Bahrain Royal family will issue a pardon this coming February 14, 2012. We are more than happy to see OFW Jose be included in the February 14 pardon grant by the Bahrain Royal family and eventually be released from prison and reunite with his family in the Philippines to start a new life,” Monterona added.

OFW Jose sent us an open letter, as stated below, which he hopes would reach His Majesty the King of Bahrain.

Your Majesty,

My name is Carlo Dayrit Jose, a Filipino national with CPR number 640538720 sentenced to life imprisonment in May 28, 2002 by the higher criminal court for the unpremeditated murder of my fellow Filipino Ms. Maricel Garduque. However, on April 26, 2010 I obtained a letter of forgiveness from the mother of the deceased, Mrs. Norma Garduque which was duly authenticated by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

On October 18, 2010, the Philippine Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Her Excellency Ma. Corazon Yap-Bahjin met personally the Minister for the Royal Court, Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and handed the original letter of forgiveness.

The Minister told the Ambassador that he will forward the letter of forgiveness to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Your Majesty, numerous amnesties have already (pardoning of inmates) were given by your esteemed office since Ambassador Bahjin handed my letter of forgiveness to the Royal Court. As of this writing, I am still under incarceration.

Your Majesty, please, I am appealing to you to consider my letter. May almighty God bless you with good health and long life. Thank you.

Written by:

John Leonard Monterona

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator

Police investigators indentified the OFW as Nidzmar Bahjin. According to her kin, she is supposed to return to Manila from Bahrain last Tuesday on board Gulf Air flight GF156, which is expected to arrive 4pm from Manama, Bahrain.

“We condemn her brutal killing. Only a person with no conscience but with a highly criminal mind can do it to her putting even her cold dead body inside her own suitcase,” declared John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator.

He said the killing is quite alarming as it underscore the need to tighten the security not only at the NAIA airports but also in others around the country.

“The OFW’s brutal killing happened under a lax security measure provided by the NAIA security personnel and the deputized members of the Philippine National Police (PNP),” Monterona added.

He said NAIA or other airports must be placed on a high security alert or measures. “This should not be waived or relaxed.”

Monterona also urges the formation of a composite taskforce composed of PNP investigators and NAIA security personnel to probe deeply on the OFW’s killing and a manhunt against the killer or killers must be conducted.

“We will more than be happy to see OFW Bahjin killer rot inside prison cell. Only then, we could say justice is attained,” Monterona concluded.

Written by:
John Leonard Monterona
Migrante Middle East regional coordinator
migranteme@gmail.com

The workers were stranded and jobless after having left their employers. They cited a range of reasons for absconding, including delayed or unpaid wages, physical and verbal abuse and long hours, according to this press release from the Philippine Embassy in Bahrain.

Philippine Ambassador to Bahrain Corazon Yap-Bahjin accompanied the returning workers.

The workers had been staying at the Philippine Embassy’s halfway house in Manama for four months while Embassy officials secured their exit visas.

According to Yap Bahjin, the fact that it was the month of Ramadan meant that employers were inclined to give more lenient treatment to the workers.

“In the spirit of Ramadan, we took advantage of the employers’ spirit of charity and we convinced them not to charge for the deployment cost,” the ambassador said (see this article in The Manila Bulletin)

Emergency repatriations of distressed workers are a routine occurrence for Philippine embassies in the Middle East.  Between 8.6 and 11 million Philippinos – or 11% of the population – work overseas, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, with many of these working as domestics and blue collar workers in the Middle East.

Lebanon, for example, saw a spate of repatriations in late 2010/early 2010:

“Mass repatriations normally occur twice a year—mid–year and in December,” said Salome Mendoza, assistant labor attaché of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office. “It’s only as we approached 2011 that they’ve happened successively.”

(from ABS-CBN News 02/02/2011)

The succession of repatriations of Philippine nationals has been just one grim indicator of how poor conditions for migrant workers in the region remain.

Between two to eight south-Asian migrant workers have been killed in the weeks of protests in Bahrain, according to media reports. The brutal repression of the Bahraini peaceful protests was carried out by the Bahraini riot police, which is made up of mostly Sunni Muslims from south-Asian countries. The Shia of Bahrain, on the other hand, are barred from employment in the security forces, as they are seen as not loyal enough to the Al Khalifa regime. One of the grievances of the mostly-Shia protesters in Bahrain is the naturalization of foreign Sunnis, a policy intended to skew the demographic balance against the Shia majority. The xenophobic attacks on innocent migrant workers, which were condemned by opposition figures and NGOs, were also a result of government policy to force migrants to protest on behalf of the regime.

The sudden concern about migrant rights manifested not only in criticism of the opposition for their supposed lack of care of migrants. In order to bolster the credibility of this sudden interest in the welfare of the majority of Bahrain’s inhabitants, the Foreign Minister Khaled Al Khalifa paid visits to expatriate clubs and embassies, Bahraini TV began broadcasting news bulletins in languages spoken by migrants in Bahrain, and expats were even invited to the National Dialog.

While the regime publicly expresses its concern about rights of migrant workers, it has quietly re-instated the Sponsorship (kafala) system in Bahrain. Law 15/2011 that was issued by King Hamad Al Khalifa this month prevents migrant workers from leaving their employer within the first year of employment (amendment of Article 25 of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority [LMRA] Law). Previously, amendments to the LMRA law in April of 2009 were hailed worldwide as progress, and “axing” of Bahrain’s Sponsorship law (the first country to do so in the Gulf). In effect, the Sponsorship system was never abolished – the change was largely symbolic – with the LMRA becoming the official sponsor of migrants. However, the April 2009 decision did include a significant positive element – it now allowed employees to leave their employer without the employer’s consent. This positive decision has now been reversed by the Law issued this month.

On top of the un-official reinstatement of the Sponsorship system, workers have been handed down unfair rulings in court. 128 Indian workers who were promised salaries of BD 100 ($270) per month stopped working after they were instead given only BD 45 ($120) and were unable to survive on such a salary. They’ve been stranded in Bahrain for five years because when the workers attempted to leave the country they were informed that absconding charges were brought against them. Their employer, the Abdulla Nass Contracting Company, demanded the underpaid workers compensate the Company, and a Bahraini court ruled in the favor of the employer. Each of the workers was ordered to pay between BD 400 ($1,100) and BD 600 ($1,600) for breaching their contracts. The workers are of course unable to pay such sums, and are forced to stay in Bahrain. It was announced today that their case has been postponed for four more months, as the workers struggle to survive in Bahrain, living on borrowed money from friends.

Last week, when a group of 300 Asian construction workers went on strike demanding an increase in their meager salaries, 40 of them were fired after their management declared that the strike in “illegal”. When the workers turned to the Labor Ministry, the Ministry backed the employer and told the workers that they’re forbidden to ask for salary increases. Five days after the strike began, the workers returned to work with no salary increases. Bahrain’s labor laws permit strikes but significantly restricts workers ability to practice this right.

The Bahraini regime clearly doesn’t practice what it preaches to the opposition. All the recent steps taken by the Bahraini regime indicate that it is much more interested in protecting the powerful employers and not the weak migrant workers.

Migrant rights group appeals to Bahrain govt. to grant amnesty for undocumented migrants

Barely a week until the lifting of the State of National Safety that was announced by the Bahrain government, fifty-four (54) undocumented migrants have been arrested by Bahrain authorities according to Migrante-Middle East, a Filipino migrants right group providing assistance to distress migrant workers in the Middle East.

John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional director, citing local reports, on Thursday “Bahrain Interior ministry on nationality, passports and residence directorate arrested 54 illegal migrants of various nationalities.”

“According to reports we have received, there were Filipino workers nabbed on last week crack down on undocumented migrants, but we are still verifying how many and who they are,” Monterona added.

Monterona said it is understandable on the part of the Bahraini govt. to strictly impose its immigration laws and initiate a clamp down on undocumented and illegal migrants as it was beset by massive protests staged by anti-government dissenters, months ago.

“We viewed that the on-going crackdown of undocumented migrants as part of the efforts of the Bahrain authorities to maintain and secure its internal peace and order situation under its State of National Safety declaration but we are quite sure that the undocumented, mostly Asian migrant workers, are not part of the anti-government groups,” Monterona added.

Monterona said most of the undocumented migrants were forced to run away from their employers on claim that they were abused and exploited and have became victim of rampant labor malpractices.

“Many of them have been charged of absconding, which is a crime, a breach to the host government immigration laws, and their work visas expired and became illegal migrants,” Monterona explained.

Monterona said thus his group is urging the host govt. to be prudent and be considerate on its efforts to root out the undocumented from the country.

Monterona appeals to Bahrain authorities to respect the rights of the undocumented migrants, mostly Asian migrants including fellow Filipino migrant workers. “Though undocumented they deserve humane treatment,” Monterona added.

“We appeal to the kindness of Bahrain’s King Hamad to consider the granting of amnesty for all undocumented and illegal migrants as what its neighboring countries have done few months back,” Monterona averred.

The Saudi and Kuwaiti governments announced the granting of amnesty to all undocumented and illegal migrants on February and March, respectively. The Saudi government through the kindness of His Highness King Abdullah had announced a Royal pardon grant to petty crimes offenders without private rights liability. (end) # # #

Written by:

John Leonard Monterona

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator

Dr. Hanieh, a lecturer in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, described how the Saudi working class that has filled up most of the positions in the oil sector was gradually replaced with temporary workers in the 1960s and 1970s due to radicalization of the Saudi working class, which conducted several strikes, some of them against the control of a US firm (Aramco) over the Saudi oil. The strikes and protests were repressed and by the 1970s, 75% of the workers were Arab migrants. Those migrants, mostly Palestinians and Yemeni citizens were then themselves replaced in the 1980s and 1990s by South-Asian migrants who now constitute the majority of the workforce in the Gulf. Dr. Hanieh then goes on to discuss the living and working conditions of migrant workers in the Gulf today: passport confiscation, inability to strike, abuse and many occurrence of suicides.

Read here the full transcript of the interview.

15 April 2011

“A government that relinquishes its primary responsibility of protecting its own working people abroad is an irresponsible government,” said John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator.

Migrante’s Monterona is reacting to the PH embassy’s requirement to returning OFWs (http://philembassy-bahrain.com/), Bahrain-bound, to sign a waiver, in effect, will free the PH government from its accountability to returning OFWs who will insist on returning to Bahrain.

“We understand that the peace and order situation in Bahrain, like in Yemen, Syria, and Libya, is still fragile; but requiring our fellow OFWs to sign a waiver so that they’ll be allowed to go back to Bahrain smacks the government primary duty and sincerity of protecting its own working people,” Monterona added.

Monterona said returning OFWs to Bahrain are not naïve enough not to see what’s is happening there, but on the other hand, they are much worried of their families’ daily survival, amid the price increases of basic commodities and services and grinding poverty in the Philippines. With Oil deregulation law, the government becomes inutile amid oil price hikes.

“What would happen if they could not come back soon for work as their employers are requiring them to report for work after their vacation, otherwise they’ll be fired out of their job,” Monterona averred.

Monterona said requiring returning OFWs to issue a waiver is a big hypocrisy of the government who is pretending to care and protect OFWs but in fact has done little to honestly provide protection to them while abroad.

Monterona suggested the PH embassy in Bahrain could, for instance, arrange with the host government to escort arriving OFWs from the airport to their respective accommodations upon their arrival in Bahrain, just to secure their safety.

Monterona added the PH embassy could even talk to the OFWs employers that they’ll be escorted, back and forth, going to their job site and to their accommodations, again to ensure that our working OFWs will be safeguarded.

“Now following what I have suggested and there could be many more, what’s the use of the waiver? Could it be a help in safeguarding our OFWs? Certainly a big No!,” Monterona exclaimed.

The Saudi-based Migrante leader calls on fellow OFWs in Bahrain especially those returning OFWs to oppose this waiver requirement as he said responsibility of providing safety to OFWs could not be waived by the government. (end)

Written by:

John Leonard Monterona

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator

“We are very upset with all the attacks on the poor Pakistanis and Bangladeshis,” MWPS chairwoman Mona Almoayyed told the GDN on behalf of both rights organisations.

“It is not fair that migrant workers who are not part of the conflict get attacked.

“I heard a group of people attacked cold stores and samboosa shops and said: “Close the shop or we will beat you.”

“These people are voiceless, they are too scared to say anything so they close the shop.

“They can’t work, they are too scared.”

Ms Almoayyed said those targeted were mainly Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh, who were earning low salaries and living in labour camps based in poor villages.

She said it was thought that anti-government protesters attacked them because they mistook them for naturalised citizens working for the police force or Bahrain Defence Force.

“They aren’t in the army and they aren’t Bahrainis, just Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who come to work in Bahrain,” said Ms Almoayyed.

Here is a video of the situation:

Migrant workers exist in all forms of life in the Gulf, from domestic help to involvement in the running of the infrastructure and logistics of the country. An important area is the construction industry. Fueled by the oil boom, it has become a cornerstone of the Gulf economy.

Migrant issues are many, multi-layered and multi-faceted, the foremost being the abuse of migrant workers through their living and working conditions. Whilst I had read and heard stories, to see and hear firsthand a person talk of their dreams, hopes, fears, challenges and traumas in their own personal and intimate space, was a very humbling experience indeed. I saw, rather than heard, about lives building a nation.

My project allowed me to meet some inspirational people working and campaigning to raise awareness of migrant issues, some with profound impact, but the work is far from over. This project attempts to add to their work, but also to go beyond the ‘issue’.

Migrant workers contribution are unrecognised, their presence unrecognised and their rights unrecognised. In essence their humanity is unrecognised.

My aim is to give recognition to the unrecognised, to share the stories of the ‘migrant worker’, to give the ‘issue’ a human face, and to get to know the person behind the ‘headlines’.

The Gulf: a region of many dimensions

Migrant workers in the Gulf are not a new phenomenon; they have been around as far back as the 1920s. After the discovery of oil, the region saw a rapid development in its economy, and inevitably entire industries grew around the exploration of oil, the most noticeable being the construction industry.
With such rapid development, these countries, lacking a skilled local workforce, began to employ a large number of expatriate workers, and rather than complementing the local workforce, these expatriate workers began to dominate and exceed it. In 2004, the migrant labour force in all the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) was close to 70 percent. The lowest rates were recorded in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but still constituted above 50 and 65 percent of the workforce respectively. In Kuwait, 82 percent of the workforce was foreign, in Qatar almost 90 percent, and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) it was also in the region of 90 percent.

Originally the workforce came from neighbouring poorer Arab states, and in the beginning they were welcomed, but as development grew tenfold in the oil-boom years, certain cultural, political, historical, economic and pragmatic factors led the ethnic makeup to change.

The GCC countries welcomed more Asian nationals into their workforce as the demand for workers far outstripped the supply that local Arab states could provide. The Asians were also cheaper and travelled alone rather than with their families.

With the de-Arabisation of the GCC workforce, a new fear arose about the loss of social customs caused by this new wave of migrants. To counter this, most GCC countries enacted a new set of labour laws. Generally these laws gave rights of employment to nationals, and maintained national privilege through a biased sponsorship system, limit on duration of work permits, curbs on naturalisation and curbs on the citizenship rights of those who had already been naturalised, but these measures brought limited results.
This inequality was further compounded by the fact that the favourable conditions enjoyed by the nationals since the oil-boom years are beginning to change. The public sector is saturated with local indigenous employees, whilst the private sector, with low salaries, long working hours, a competitive environment and usually an expatriate as a supervisor, is still unattractive for nationals. Also, nationals do not like to enter low-skilled posts, and whilst the government is addressing the skill base of its population, the education system has not properly dealt with reorienting traditional work values, and companies resent being forced to localise their workforce, arguing that it affects productivity and profitability of businesses.

All this has led to a large number of Asian migrant workers in the GCC countries, and the trend would suggest they are there to stay for a while yet.

Bahrain and its migrant workforce

Bahrain, like the rest of the GCC countries, has experienced rapid development with a large number of migrant workers. The economic development is clearly visible with the announcement of mega construction projects. The top eight projects are estimated to be at a total cost of 17.8 billion US dollars.
This serves to highlight the scale of construction development in a relatively small island such as Bahrain. Bahrain accounts for almost half a million migrant workers, of that over 120,000 are employed in the construction industry.

Mohammed Al-Binfala, who owns and runs a prominent construction company, argues that post-9/11 there has been a move towards a flow of Arab capital out of the West and into investment in the GCC countries. Prior to this, many wealthy Arabs invested in the US, but with assets being frozen whilst allegations of terrorism were investigated, many Arabs brought their wealth home.

His company is involved in three large projects in the district of Seef, one of the most affluent areas of Bahrain. These projects are valued at 16 million US dollars, 10.6 million US dollars, and 6.6 million US dollars respectively. He says there are many projects around Bahrain on this scale. This means that more labour will be urgently needed to meet the deadlines for completion of these projects. Of the 450 people he employs, only 30 are Bahraini.

Furthermore he added, “With the Iraq war, there was a surge in oil price, which resulted in surplus cash being available, and the only viable sector that they could invest in was real estate – hotel development, villas and apartments. All this development inevitably brought in lots more migrant workers, at all levels. I will not remove expats to replace them with Bahrainis, because if I need twenty workers now I will need thirty, in two years’ time. I will hire people with the skills, so if Bahraini doesn’t have the skills then I will hire expats again. With this much growth there are a lot of job opportunities here. Also the local population is growing. At the moment the population is one million, and that is expected to grow to two million in 2025. Where will all these people go? Whilst other countries have 1-2 percent growth, Bahrain has 7 percent growth.”

In the Middle East, construction workers in particular, as well as those employed in the domestic sector, are mostly Asians and are considered the most disadvantaged, and therefore the most easily exploited.
Exploitation happens for a variety of reasons, but at the core of this is the sponsorship system. For any foreign worker to come to work in the GCC states, they must do so under a sponsorship scheme. Whilst there are slight variations in the sponsorship rule in different GCC states, essentially in all countries there must be an indigenous person who applies to bring a foreigner over to work for him. This is termed the ‘Kafala system’. This means that a worker’s right to work and remain in the host country is tied to the sponsorship of his or her employer. They are not free to switch jobs and can end up being deported if they attempt to leave their employer.

This law has particularly serious implications for women working as maids, who are legally required to reside with their employer; it makes it difficult for them to leave an abusive situation. It also binds construction and factory workers to their employers. However, as of August 1, 2009, Bahrain was the first country in the region to scrap the Kafala system.

Instead, in an effort to protect migrant workers, employers must request work visas for foreigners via the Labour Market Regulation Authority (LMRA), the official sponsor of foreign workers, and migrants can turn to the LMRA for permission to change jobs after completing contracts if they find another Bahraini employer who wants to hire them.

Bahrain also requires contracts in the worker’s language spelling out job duties, hours and working conditions. Changing jobs without leaving Bahrain has become easier, and employers are required to pay migrant workers via bank deposits in order to leave a record so that wage disputes can be resolved quickly.

Whilst in theory this is seen as progressive for a country in this region, and a positive step towards trying to reduce exploitation, the system of sponsorship which exists means that in effect this is far from what happens.

Often a term that is thrown about is the ‘free visa’. In reality, such a thing does not exist, but is used to explain the illegal sponsorship system, whereby a person will come over on a sponsorship, under an assumed company, but will not be required to work under that sponsor or company. They will be set ‘free’ to find their own work.

The catch is that the sponsor charges a ‘fee’ to the visa holder. It can be any amount, but generally it is 2,500-4,000 US dollars. Once set ‘free’, these people have to look for their own employment. However, what then happens is the sponsor then reports these workers as missing. Their residency permits are then cancelled by the state, and they are now termed ‘illegal’. The sponsor is then allowed to bring in further people. When people become ‘illegal’ or run away, the sponsor does not have to pay insurance to the General Organisation for Social Insurance (GOSI). This insurance enables people to have access to many state services, including the health service, and an employee can claim back the money once they leave employment (Muhammad Ibrahim, First Secretary and Head of Labour Wing, Bangladeshi Embassy).
Marietta Dias, a founding member and head of the Action Committee of the Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) in Bahrain argues. “To date there is no record of migrant workers claiming this money back. The only time they receive money is when there has been an industrial accident and that too is a long, long process. It is also important to say that it is against the law to employ free visa workers and the new employer can be made to pay hefty fines and the worker immediately deported thus incurring great financial loss to the worker.”

It is also common for the ‘free visa’ that there may be several middlemen who all benefit financially from one migrant worker. This means the migrant worker may never know who his actual sponsor is. This causes a lot of problems if the worker finds himself in trouble.

Even those workers who arrive under a legitimate sponsor may find that the salary promised is not given, or is withheld for many months. Sometimes the jobs promised are non-existent, and therefore the workers are forced to compromise and take whatever employment is on offer due to the huge financial debt they have incurred along the way with exorbitant rates of interest.

Also, on arrival, it is common practice that workers will have their passports taken away from them by their employer for ‘safekeeping’. Furthermore, construction workers are often subjected to overcrowded and unhygienic living conditions and work in unsafe conditions and extremely high temperatures. “It is no coincidence that one of the most common causes of death among perfectly healthy young men is cardiac arrest. Accidents on construction sites are also a frequent cause of death and serious injury.”

Mrs Dias furthermore added, “Most of these migrant workers are low skilled, it is therefore no surprise that these workers seldom, if ever, fight for their rights. Even if they do, the chance of their winning is very, very slim. It is rare to see a worker in possession of a legal contract of employment, and yet this is the one document the authorities demand to see if they wish to take up their rights”. Marietta Dias has spent over forty years campaigning for migrant and domestic workers’ rights, and has been awarded the 2008 Hero Acting to end Modern Day Slavery Award by the US, one of only twelve people in the world to receive it. She says, “I have handled many cases, and very few get to court, and even if it gets to court, it can take many years. Most don’t have that time.”

Conclusion

The Middle East, especially the GCC countries, is a region of great transition and change, attributed to the fast-paced development of the region, and with it has come many challenges, none more so than the reliance on a migrant workforce.

It would seem that, despite the current economic challenges, the need for construction development will exist in Bahrain for a while yet, and with it the need for migrant workers.

Bahrain, like the rest of the GCC states, has had to confront the complex and multi-faceted issues associated with migrant workers. From protectionist labour and social policies, to a fear of a lost culture due to an influx of people from other countries, to laws enacted to protect vested interests, migration in the GCC is an interesting and important topic for a variety of historical, political, social and moral reasons.
Bahrain has been at the forefront of enacting laws and scrapping of the Kafala system; yet state intervention is far from simple. The ‘free visa’ system highlights how difficult the migrant issue is in Bahrain. Workers continue to be exploited and abused, and unrecognised for their contribution to the countries they are building.

See the full photo essay on Tawhid al-Rahman’s website,here

Originally written by Tawhid al-Rahman, a photojournalist based in Bahrain, and re-posted here with permission.