Bahrain home to over 630,000 foreign workers

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Email: ashen@newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain has over 630,000 foreign workers in its payroll for now, says a new report by the Labour Market Regulatory Authority.

To be precise, there are 631,763 foreign workers in the Kingdom by mid-2024. However, in mid-2023, the total number of foreign workers were 808,411.

LMRA further confirms that it approved more workers in the first half of 2024, compared to prior year period.

Yet, there is a drop in the new work permits issued to foreign workers by 12.3% to 79,372 by mid-2024 from 90,476 in the same period last year.

On a quarterly basis, LMRA issued 45,632 new permits in the first quarter and 33,740 in the second quarter.

Sharp rise

There was a sharp rise in new permits over the previous two years, 2022 and 2023, as Bahrain recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first half of 2021, only 58,000 permits were issued, which shot up to around 91,000 in the first half of 2022—a 57% increase in just one year, an unprecedented leap.

Though 2023 saw the numbers level off, new permits have now returned to lower levels, according to the latest data.

Looking at foreign workers over the last four years, the data shows a steady increase.

At the end of 2021, there were 529,526 foreign workers in Bahrain, rising to 582,051 by the end of 2022, 616,122 by the end of 2023, and finally 631,763 by mid-2024