Agencies

Manama, Jan 2: Indians are well integrated and accepted in the Bahrain community that only a few face trouble, said Indian Ambassador Mohan Kumar yesterday.

He said out of more than 350,000 Indians in Bahrain, only 20 cases were being referred to the embassy every month.

Mr Kumar revealed that out of 3,192 Indians who have filed for the Easy Exit scheme, 2,500 have already been cleared.

The rest will be cleared with instructions to embassy officials to follow them up with immediate effect, he said.

The ambassador was speaking to the Press following a monthly Open House held at the embassy in Adliya.

"This is my second open house as an ambassador in Bahrain and as I have seen today most of what we have come across are common cases," said Mr Kumar.

"Most are related to non-payments of salaries, in addition to paying less than what the contract states," he said.

"There was a rare case that we had to deal with today and that's someone falling sick while in Bahrain and being unable to fulfil his duties, but his sponsor is refusing to let him go.

"Cases in which employees have been forced to work for 18 hours without using a bathroom have also been reported to us and this is a heart-breaking issue that will be addressed with the officials concerned."

Mr Kumar said the Open House was an exception to the general rule, which shows that Indians were welcome in Bahrain.

"Indians feel happy here as they are seen as members of the community and from what I am seeing we are doing well," he said.

"We have more than 350,000 Indians here and compared to other countries, the problems we are dealing with are barely countable.

"In an ideal world I would see that it is perfect, but there are problems even if a few and we are here to deal with them."

He said the embassy has already contacted some sponsors to discuss problems facing their Indian employees and they are ready to talk.

"In cases where agreements have not been reached, we have gone to court and managed to secure judgements."