Bahrain authorities urged to probe online job vacancies promoting hatred among residents

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

Social media users have urged Bahrain authorities to carry out a probe into certain listings on job portals that publish vacancies with an intent to plant seeds of hatred among residents.

The plea arose after an allegedly fake advertisement began surfacing on many job portals, including prominent ones, seeking prospective employees only belonging to a particular religion.

“The religion clause” sparked an uproar across all social media platforms with the majority of social media users criticising the company for posting such a prerequisite before shortlisting ideal candidates.

None of the companies under whose names the job advertisements are posted has come out with a response on the matter after sparking the controversy. The Daily Tribune is absolutely unclear over whether these entities exist in reality.

“This is unacceptable and unethical. The authorities should immediately probe into the matter to bring the truth to light. If it is a genuine advertisement strict action must be taken against the company otherwise those behind this fake advertisement must be punished,” a social media user said. Another social media user said an urgent probe can only reveal the truth.

“Such tendencies should be arrested immediately. I urge the authorities to take appropriate steps to identify the culprits.” Meanwhile, many other social media users urged strict action against the job portals for posting such advertisements.

“Either way, I think action should be first taken against these job portals. They can’t do something that would create intolerance within any society by sowing seeds of hatred and distrust.” A third group of social media users urged not to share these advertisements.

“This is the Holy Month of Ramadan and let’s not share hatred. Committing another mistake wouldn’t be a solution to one mistake. “We shouldn’t interfere in this matter. Let the authorities probe and find out as to who are the culprits.”

The Daily Tribune contacted one of the manpower recruitment agencies in Mumbai, India, which is accused of posting jobs carrying “the religion clause”. A senior executive of the agency said they don’t know anything about this advertisement and no clients ever asked them to post such a job advertisement.

“We never entertain such requests. Of course, some clients request us to recruit men and women from specific ethnicities like Punjabi, Gujarati or Malayalaee. And this is for more effective communication as the language factor could play an important role in the functioning of small enterprises.

“But we have never posted a job advertisement seeking men and women belonging to a specific religion. We wouldn’t do that either as such acts could lead to the cancellation of liacenses.” Any attempt to sow seeds of hatred within the society amounts to a criminal offence in the Kingdom.