"With rising numbers and a lack of solutions, the unemployment issue in Bahrain resurfaces" 30 January 2026

Al-Musawi's question coincided with a movement by a number of unemployed men and women in Bahrain at the beginning of this year, who staged a sit-in in front of the Ministry of Labor. After being prevented from gathering and arrested, they moved to other locations where they were also prevented from gathering, until they took other steps to achieve their demands, including some of them going on hunger strike... Nidal Al-Salman, head of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, described to Raseef22 the authorities' measures to prevent gatherings and summon people as "unjustified restrictions on the rights of expression and peaceful assembly, using security as a pretext to restrict fundamental freedoms. Furthermore, they do not address unemployment or improve the social situation, but rather increase frustration and marginalize the voices of those affected"...

A group of unemployed people say that the government and political system in Bahrain favor foreign workers over citizens, which has made it difficult for some families to secure their daily sustenance and meet their daily needs despite their academic qualifications and degrees... Bahraini Minister of Labor Youssef Khalaf said that his ministry "has no basis for this claim... The Ministry of Labor is intensifying its efforts, contacting, encouraging, and requesting, but it does not force the private sector to offer job opportunities“ to unemployed Bahrainis. He pointed out that ”there are employers who cooperate with the ministry and offer jobs through the ministry of their own free will, and there is a marketing team that seeks to provide the national employment platform with the largest number of jobs,“ stressing that the ministry cannot force employers to offer jobs to Bahrainis because ”we do not have any mechanism to force them or stop them if they do not cooperate. The role of the Ministry of Labor is regulatory, and we ask employers to contribute to this great national effort (the employment of Bahrainis)." The Ministry of Labor did not respond to questions sent by Raseef22 via email on January 21...

Returning to Aoun, she says that she passed the job application exam at the time, had an interview, and was never contacted again. She continues: “The strange thing is that in all these 19 years, no vacancies have been announced in this field. Is it reasonable to think that in all these years, no one has retired or been promoted? No new schools or centers have been opened, and no one in this position has died? Or is there some kind of secret hiring that is never disclosed?” However, Aoun says she did not participate in the sit-in in front of the Ministry of Labor “because of the security crackdown” on participants... Decree Law No. 78 of 2006 in Bahrain guarantees the payment of a financial allowance to unemployed men and women, amounting to approximately 500 Bahraini dinars (about US$1,300), specifically for those who have previously worked, and no less than 150 Bahraini dinars (about US$400) for those looking for work for the first time...

Contrary to attempts to blame migrant workers for exacerbating unemployment, human rights activist Nidal Al-Salman points out that "the issue of unemployment in Bahrain is a violation of the right to work and a decent life, especially given the lack of equal opportunities, where the problem is exacerbated by structural discrimination and political exclusion, which deprives large segments of the population of access to fair jobs.“ She adds, ”Unemployment here is not just an economic crisis, but the result of policies that undermine social justice and equal citizenship"...The Bahraini opposition also attributes the problem of unemployment to "three sensitive and delicate issues that have made unemployment an even more pressing and provocative issue, namely: political naturalization, which has contributed to the transfer of tens of thousands of opportunities to those who have recently obtained Bahraini citizenship and taken over government and non-government jobs. Secondly, the issue of ‘foreigners’, through the large-scale importation of foreign labor and their placement in all sectors of government, private, and commercial employment, despite the existence of unemployed Bahraini professionals in all these fields. Thirdly, discrimination on non-national grounds has contributed to increased paralysis, lack of competition, and the absence of sound scientific criteria for the serious and sustainable employment and absorption of national labor...

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[Unofficial translation from Arabic to English provided by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]