Bahrain

The Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) has initiated procedures for establishing an office for the protection of victims and witnesses in cases of Trafficking in Persons. The office will act as a focal point with the Public Prosecution's Office and will look into protection requests. It aims at protecting victims and witnesses from psychological and material damage throughout Public Prosecution procedures.

The National Human Trafficking Helpline "995" is the accessible and prominent point of contact that receives potential trafficking in persons cases, tip-offs, inquires and complaints from expatriate workers.

In pursuit of exploring bilateral cooperation on migrant workers with countries that have reformed their regulation on migrant workers so as to provide more protection for them, Indonesia has launched cooperation between Bahrain and the Philippines.

This cooperation includes, for example, the Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Manpower and Transmigration of the Republic of Indonesia and the Department of Labor and Employment of the Republic of the Philippines Concerning Migrant Workers.

The Flexi Permit is a renewable two year permit which allows the eligible person to work and live in the Kingdom of Bahrain without an employer (Sponsor) where they can work in any job with any number of employers on full or part-time basis.

Flexi Visa holders will be issued a renewable work permit with two years validity, health insurance coverage, and a return ticket at the end of the contract period or when the worker decides to return to his or her home country.  It also allows the migrant worker to legally work in Bahrain without an employer sponsor.

Jointly implemented with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the project involves the development of a policy-benchmarking framework to assess the extent to which national migration policies facilitate orderly, safe and well managed migration, as laid out in SDG Target 10.7.

The MOA between the Philippines and Bahrain is aimed at creating alliances between the Philippines and Bahrain's recognized healthcare and educational institutions to produce sustainable international education, training and professional/technical development programs. The agreement includes the Exchange of Human Resources for Health, Scholarships Program and Academic Cooperation on Human Resources for Health and among others.

The regional advocacy initiative aims to determine ways in which national laws could be adapted to conform with the new international legal standards, as well as to examine the possibility of Arab States ratifying the Domestic Workers Convention. The program will focus on Bahrain, Jordan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman over a period of two years.

A Middle East regional program to provide necessary technical support to national constituents to improve the governance and protection mechanisms afforded to low-skilled women and men migrant workers in different sectors (construction, manufacturing, health, retail, hospitality, tourism, and domestic help). The program's focus is regional data management, research and policy reform; service delivery to migrant workers; and capacity training programmes for key stakeholders.

The Government of Nepal has signed bilateral labour agreements with five major destination countries, namely the Kingdom of Bahrain (April 29, 2008), the State of Qatar (April 21, 2005), the United Arab Emirates (July 3, 2007), the Republic of Korea (July 23, 2007) and Japan (2009). The Government is also taking into consideration signing labour agreements with Oman, Lebanon and Malaysia.