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NGO Rejoinder

12 Nov 2021

Author:
Migrant-Rights.org

Migrant-Rights.org issues rejoinder to five companies & UKEF re worker protests over poor living & working conditions

"Companies involved in Bahrain’s BAPCO protests issue weak responses to rights violations," 11 Nov 2021

NSH vehemently denied any violations on their part and brazenly maintained that the incident was "neither a strike nor a protest, but an emotional outbreak," blaming a “small group of people with an intention to defame NSH, BAPCO and the Kingdom of Bahrain.” ...

BAPCO acknowledged that a protest occurred. In contrast to NSH, which categorically denied any issues in its statement, they also recognized, to some degree, that there was a problem that sparked the protests in the first place...

…that no security forces physically intervened in the protests, and that instead, a small group of workers became aggressive with their co-workers. BAPCO did not provide the BHRRC with evidence to substantiate this accusation...

NSH is a major subcontractor to the consortium of companies known as TTSJV… which is also contracted by BAPCO for the modernization programme. The three companies all responded to BHRRC with a nearly identical statement asserting that the protests were initiated by a "minority group of workers” employed by NSH...

[and] that steps had already been taken to ensure safe working conditions on-site and that workers who wanted to go home (because of the poor conditions) had been repatriated… they "strongly protest" media reports, including MR's article, for containing "untrue allegations," without specifying which part of the article they claim to be untrue.

The UK Export Finance agency… also recently issued a non-substantive statement to the BHRRC regarding the incident, stating that they are "closely monitoring the situation."

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