Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): With the increase of sickle cell anemia patients dying as a result of inadequate care or medical errors, patients say that officials aspire to eliminate sickle patients, rather than the disease itself.

Similarly, the government never wanted to Bahranize jobs, so it resorted to Bahrainizing foreigners holding positions in state ministries, where the percentage of Bahrainization was at a low level and then suddenly they became the most Bahranized.

While discussing the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Bahrainization of Jobs on Tuesday (February 4, 2020), MP Zainab Abdulamir noted that the Ministry of Information, which is packed with expatriates, achieved a 98% of Bahrainization. This percentage was achieved overnight.

The government has taken its most favorite and easiest path, i.e. naturalizing thousands of expatriates working in the Ministry of Information, as well as principals, assistant principals and teachers of the Ministry of Education and employees of other state ministries, agencies and companies.

While the government is granting the Bahraini citizenship to foreign employees, members of parliament say that tens of thousands of Bahrainis are unemployed.

MP Abdullah Al-Dosari says that the number of unemployed people in Bahrain has reached 34,000, about 15,000 of whom hold university degrees, noting that failure to recognize the unemployment crisis in Bahrain will not contribute to solving it. 

Perhaps the political crisis of a government that brings in foreigners, grants them public jobs, nationality, housing, educational and medical services and deprives citizens of them is more serious than the unemployment crisis itself.

"In the past, it was only the Ministry of Interior," says Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Abdulnabi Salman, "but today it has affected policies of the Ministry of Education and the Civil Service Bureau, whose treatment has become factional."

Since King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa came to power in March 1999, the Royal Court has sponsored an integrated plan to replace Bahrainis in public office as one of the steps in changing the country's demographic makeup.

In fact, the government does not provide acceptable justifications for not hiring Bahrainis. It also does not answer questions about the reasons for bringing in Pakistani and Egyptian physicians, while hundreds of Bahraini doctors of various specialties are unemployed.

Minister Ghanem Al-Buainain said the ministries had their reasons for keeping some foreigners. But the question is: Does the government have justifications for the steady increase in reliance on and naturalization of foreigners to replace and take the rights of Bahrainis?

Only political purposes justify the Royal Court's continued extensive naturalization process in a country on the brink of bankruptcy, suffering from unemployment and many economic and political crises.

Arabic Version