Migrant Workers Protection Society (MWPS) was established in 2005 under license 25/C/AC (ج/أج/ ٢٥) from the Ministry of Social Development.
Our Mission Statement is to seek to help expatriate workers achieve their basic human rights in accordance with internationally recognized standards.
We are the only society in the region to work exclusively in support of the expatriate worker community, as far as we are aware.
We have more than 40 members from Bahrain, Britain, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the US, all of whom work on an entirely voluntary basis.
We receive referrals for support almost every day, from a variety of sources including from workers themselves, from members of the public, from police stations, from embassies, from officials at the Ministry of Labour and sometimes from Detention Centre and Immigration officials.
The main objectives of MWPS are:
To help educate and guide expatriate workers to understand their rights and their responsibilities
To create public awareness about the abuse and exploitation of expatriate workers and to explain the community’s role in combating it
To advocate to government authorities and institutions on behalf of the expatriate worker community
MWPS provides support in the following ways for expatriate workers, male and female, who have become victims of abuse or exploitation:
We provide temporary accommodation in our shelter (for females), we arrange medical treatment and legal services and we finance visa fees and airline tickets for repatriation. (We have provided shelter for more than 1,200 women since opening in 2005 and sheltered 124 women during 2012).
We provide expatriate workers with translators and our members are actively engaged in all follow-up work related to their cases. This involves frequent, often daily visits to police stations, manpower agencies, the Ministry of Labour, LMRA, embassies, GDNPR, hospitals, Public Prosecution and the courts.
We provide food, clothing, bedding and toiletries for labourers in cases of need and organize safety awareness programmes.
We arrange media coverage for cases and gives presentations helping to create public awareness.
We advocates for policy change, when appropriate.