Help pledge to destitute

No Indian in genuine need of repatriation will be left stranded in Bahrain without an air ticket home, vowed community leaders.

Indian embassy officials say they are working closely with the community to ensure citizens in trouble and their families are taken care of.

Bahrain’s prisons have 55 Indians – 47 males and eight females – who are behind bars for various offences including petty crime, illegal stays, drug peddling and promoting prostitution. There are also some serving longer sentences for serious crimes including murder.

Indian Ambassador to Bahrain Mohan Kumar said: “An ambassador can never be happy with their nationals being in jail but keeping in mind the 400,000 nationals we have in Bahrain as of today, it is much less than you would expect. In every society there are a few people who go astray and that happens everywhere.

“We do come against a wall when facing some unique cases of individuals who owe more than half a million dinars. As much as we may want to help, one must remember that the law of the land has to take its course.”

Embassy officials and community leaders make visits to the kingdom’s prisons three times a year and provide them with calling cards and stationery. They say that they have never received any complaints about food or with their general treatment at the hands of prison guards.

Mr Kumar believes that issue of ‘travel bans’ is a far more serious problem facing Indians and the embassy has raised the issue at various ministerial level meetings. Mr Kumar said: “To the best of our knowledge there are only 10 to 12 travel ban cases involving Indians. It is a very important issue, which we have raised in the foreign office consultations. We have been told that Bahrain has started an inter-ministerial consultation process. And these things do take time.

“India would like the Bahraini government to provide these people with the freedom of economic activity so that they can take care of themselves. It is very important to allow these people to work.

“This is especially important considering the number of single men in the population. Even if they come with families they are often the sole bread winner. And, we have very strongly conveyed this to the Bahrain government.

“We would also like to very strongly urge urgent courts and expeditious judgements with respect to the travel ban cases. We are aware of appeal processes that have taken too long and it will be very handy if this is also taken upon as part of the reform process that this country is embarking upon.”

The British Embassy, as reported in GulfWeekly, is also heavily involved in talks with their counterparts in Bahrain to solve the controversial travel ban issue.

The Indian Community Relief Fund (ICRF), which operates under the patronage of the Indian Embassy, is also actively working towards the welfare of their countrymen, even providing free tickets to citizens in need.

John Iype, chairman of ICRF said: “If we come to know of any Indian who is in dire straits and has no hope of raising any money to return home because of various reasons, we are always ready to help. Of course, he needs to prove his financial status and we need to be convinced of this fact.

“We often get calls from the deportation centre in Hidd ... if the person has no passport the embassy helps by issuing the individual with an out-pass and we help towards the money for his ticket home.”

The ICRF also runs a Family Relief Fund Scheme that aims to provide families of poor expatriate Indians who died of natural circumstances or by accident and earned a monthly income of BD100 or less with a sum of BD732 (100,000 rupees).