MANAMA, 5 May 2003 — About 200 Bahrainis protested yesterday outside the prime minister’s office, demanding more jobs and priority for citizens over foreign workers.
The peaceful demonstration, mostly by Shiite Muslims, included a dozen women. It lasted a few hours.
Chanting slogans outside Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa ibn Salman Al Khalifa’s office in the capital, the protesters demanded the government open jobs at the defense and interior ministries, and provide social security for the jobless until they find work.
“I am a Bahraini who would love to serve his country,” said unemployed Ali Shatoot, 25. “But I also need a job to be able to provide a decent living for my family,” said Shatoot, carrying his two-year-old son, Haider. The demonstrators said they will continue similar protests until the government meets their demands.
They also urged Bahrain’s ruler, King Hamad ibn Isa, to find a solution, saying that hiring non-Bahrainis was part of the problem.
Millions of unskilled Asian workers have been drawn to Bahrain and other Gulf states by jobs in the construction industry, factories, restaurants and households. There are more than 200,000 foreigners living and working in Bahrain.
Demonstrations for jobs have been common in recent months.
Yesterday’s protest was led by the Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, a political group that enjoys the backing of Bahrain’s Shiites who form a small majority in the country’s more than 400,000 citizens.
“There has to be a solution to this growing unemployment problem, but we haven’t seen anything feasible yet,” said Al-Wefaq’s head Sheikh Ali Salman.
A lack of jobs in Bahrain was a key factor in unrest that erupted in the mid-1990s, when the Shiites accused the government of job discrimination. More than 40 people were killed in the unrest.
In last November’s Cabinet reshuffle, King Hamad appointed a former Shiite opposition exile, Majid Al-Alawi, as labor minister.
The official unemployment rate at the end of 2001 — the most recent available figure — was 5.6 percent. Earlier that year, the government began a $66 million training program to create new jobs.
