Gulf Daily News - 27 September 2005

THE Bahrain Centre for Human Rights has issued a number of recommendations addressing this issue. According to the report, Bahraini authorities, the embassies of countries exporting migrant workers to Bahrain and civil society organisations all have roles to play to curtail this issue.

The Bahraini authorities should:

• Ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, which include their right to live, to have fair judicial measures, receive fair trials, and their right to freedom of expression through legislation, and the reformation of existing legislation in order for them to be consistent with international standards.

Bahrain Tribune - 27 September 2005

Trade unions in Bahrain have ignored the issue of migrant worker rights violations, said a human rights group and the most abused group – migrant women, particularly domestic workers – have no representation even though they make up the largest section of migrant women workers in Bahrain.

In a detailed report, the now disbanded Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) said common violations of migrant workers’ and women’s rights included seizing and holding of migrant workers’ identity papers (passports) and forcing them to sign false declarations that they had received all salary and dues when they hadn’t and physical abuse which extends to sexual abuse in the case of women workers.

Mazen Mahdi, Arab News — 27 September 2005

MANAMA, 27 September 2005 — The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) in a report issued yesterday accused sponsors of migrant workers in the Gulf of slavery and blackmail practices.

The BCHR, which continues to operate despite being dissolved by the Bahraini government in late 2004, cited how sponsors hold and confiscate employees’ passports and forbid them from traveling.

“Such actions are taken in an attempt to blackmail the workers, force them to achieve illegitimate advantages or concede their salaries and indemnities which were gained through years, taking advantage of their desperation in seeing their homes and families after years of separation,” the report said.

As A Means of Blackmailing, Forced Labor and Slavery

A Report by: The Bahrain Center for Human Rights
26th September 2005

Khaleej Times - 19 September 2005

DUBAI - The dying father of a Bahraini detainee held at Guantanamo Bay has made a final heart-rending plea to see his son, the Bahraini newspaper Gulf Daily News reported on Saturday.

Mohammed Al Dossary, who suffers from throat cancer, is urging Bahraini authorities and rights activists for help in getting Juma released, said the paper.

Al Dossary was admitted to the intensive care unit at Dammam Hospital, in Saudi Arabia, on Thursday for complications following surgery. He has not seen his son Juma for nearly four years and is said to be in and out of consciousness.

URGENT APPEAL

ACTIVIST RAJAB HOSPITALIZED

FIVE OTHERS AWAIT PROPER TREATMENT AS A RESULT OF ATTACK BY STATE MILITARY FORCES

6th September 2005
Ref: 05090601

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) has received today, with concerns, news about a well-known human rights activist, Mr. Nabeel Rajab, who was taken by ambulance to Salmaneyya Government hospital. Mr. Rajab was unable to move a result of severe back pain which he suffered when attacked by the Bahraini military forces while intending to participate into a peaceful demonstration by the Unemployed on July 15th, 2005.

Gulf Daily News - 6 September 2005
By ABDULRAHMAN FAKHRI

POLITICAL societies were criticised yesterday by a human rights group for failing to push for changes to a controversial law that governs their activities.

The now dissolved Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) accused them of steering away from the real issue - which is that many of them do not accept it.

Under the new law passed last month, all existing political societies must re-apply for permission to form by early December.

But the BCHR is urging them to continue to function without applying for permission in defiance of the law.

Five others await proper treastment as a result of attack by state military forces

6th September 2005

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) has received today, with concerns, news about a well-known human rights activist, Mr. Nabeel Rajab, who was taken by ambulance to Salmaneyya Government hospital. Mr. Rajab was unable to move a result of severe back pain which he suffered when attacked by the Bahraini military forces while intending to participate into a peaceful demonstration by the Unemployed on July 15th, 2005.