Travel ban service awareness call
Social workers have called on the authorities concerned to spread awareness about the new online ‘Travel ban service’ to the low-income workers as well as to translate the service to multiple languages.
To help citizens and residents easily obtain information concerning their legal status in relation to travel bans before considering travelling abroad, the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments launched a new online service last week. Although applauding the concept behind it, social workers have called for marketing the service to the low-income expatriate workers as well as for translated versions of the service in order to aid them. They argued that a large portion of those affected by travel bans are low-income expatriates. Although it will soon be available in English, the social workers claimed that translating the services to multiple languages would immensely help the poor workers.
Speaking to News of Bahrain, Nepalese Blogger and Activist Him Lal Pandey said that although majority of the low educated and low paid Nepalese workers in the Kingdom owned a smartphone or have access to internet, only a minority understand English or Arabic. “Fortunately many have smartphones, but they have it configured in Nepalese. They are limited in the websites they visit and its usage. For them to use this travel ban service, it needs to be in Nepalese,” he said.
Social Worker and Founder of the ‘Saturday Biriyani Party’ Initiative Abbas Khan said that effective marketing of the service to these workers was vital. “Steps need to be taken to create awareness about this service. I visit around 300 low-income workers every week, and I don’t think that they know about this service. Even when they have access to Internet, they will not be able to use this service because of they cannot understand Arabic or English,” he said.
“I suggest that they have a drop down menu in their website which will allow them to choose various languages. The concept behind it is very good, but it needs effective marketing. If they can distribute brochures and spread the word through radio, it would be good,” he said.
The travel ban services, available on Bahrain.bh, was launched in cooperation with the Informatics and e-Government Authority. The new services will allow individuals the ability to settle any outstanding financial claims online without resorting to a court order to lift the travel ban, which will effectively streamline the process and reduce procedural costs. In addition, once all dues are settled through the online system, a text message (SMS) is immediately sent to the individual confirming that the travel ban has been lifted.
Photo Caption: Him Lal Pandey and Abbas Khan
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