The Indian Embassy has blacklisted more than 45 companies in Bahrain for violating local laws by denying the rights of Indian workers.

The charges against these companies include non-payment of salaries, mistreatment of workers and providing sub-standard accommodation for them.

These companies will not be granted permits to recruit workers from India until they correct the situation, said Indian Ambassador Balkrishna Shetty.

"We studied the cases of such companies following several complaints from workers over the past one year," he told the Gulf Daily News, our sister newspaper.

"We were asking these companies just to follow the Bahraini law. Among those who violate the law are some leading construction companies that employ hundreds of Indian workers.

"The companies that failed to correct the situation have been put on a blacklist."

Companies which refuse to handover the passports of workers during the amnesty period will also face the same fate, Shetty said.

"Despite warnings from the Labour Ministry and the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), several companies are illegally holding the workers' passports," he said.

"We are now preparing a list of such establishments. It will be handed over to the Foreign Ministry, the Labour Ministry and the LMRA."

The Indian Embassy will not allow such companies to recruit anymore workers from India, said Shetty. "We shall also refuse visas for the owners or their representatives to visit India," he revealed.

"I have already notified Bahrain's Foreign Ministry that such employers are hampering the government's amnesty process."

Shetty said since the launch of the amnesty on August 1, the Indian Embassy had received amnesty applications from 3,150 nationals.

"Sixty two per cent of them did not have their passports with them, and we are issuing emergency certificates or outpasses to such workers," he revealed.

"We are getting good co-operation from the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence in processing their applications." - TradeArabia News Service