At a glance
- Bahraini businesses will be relieved from costs of deporting runaway foreign workers and repatriating deceased expatriates.
- Financial responsibility for deportations is shifting from employers to the Labour Market Authority (LMRA).
- Employers will only cover repatriation costs if a worker dies and relatives request the body to be returned.
Parliament has passed a proposal to relieve Bahraini businesses from the costs associated with deporting runaway foreign workers and repatriating the bodies of deceased expatriates. An amendment to Bahrain Law No. 19 of 2006 will transfer the financial responsibility for deportations from employers to the LMRA.
Under the new rules, employers will only be responsible for repatriation costs if a worker dies, and their relatives specifically request the body to be returned. Previously, employers in Bahrain were liable for these expenses even if they were not directly responsible for the worker absconding. It has been argued that the LMRA used ambiguous language in the previous law to unfairly reclaim these costs from employers.
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