Bahrain's abolition of the sponsorship system will dramatically improve the status of most migrant workers and reduce their risk of exploitation, according to Human Rights Watch.

However, it said protection should be extended to migrant domestic workers, who it says are especially vulnerable to employer abuse.

It was revealed this week that the sponsorship system would be scrapped on August 1, following a meeting between Labour Minister Dr Majeed Al Alawi and officials of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Economic Development Board, the Labour Market Regulatory Authority and the General Federation of Bahrain Trade Unions.

The rights group said it had regularly documented how the current system in the region fuels abuses such as unpaid wages, exploitative working conditions and forced labour.

Cases, it said, were recorded across the region, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Lebanon.

"However, this latest announcement has been warmly welcomed," said the group's Women's Rights Division deputy director Nisha Varia.

"Most governments in the region acknowledge that the current system allows employers to abuse workers, but have wasted years debating alternatives without taking action.

"Bahrain deserves enormous credit for being the first to make concrete reforms. Other countries should follow suit."

She said several countries in the Middle East which rely on low-wage workers from Asia and Africa and use the system, were considering following Bahrain's lead.

"The reforms reduce the lopsided power balance between employers and migrant workers.

"Previously, employers could threaten migrants with deportation or seize their passports and force them to accept lower wages.

"Employers now have an incentive to improve working conditions because the reforms will give workers more opportunity to choose where they work.

"The organisation is disappointed though that the reforms do not apply to migrant domestic workers, whose employment visas will continue to be sponsored by their employers."

According to a research by the group, the Middle East has shown that domestic workers' isolation in private homes and exclusion from key labour protections put them at particular risk of a wide range of abuses, including excessively long working hours and physical and sexual abuse.

"Bahrain took the first step, but they neglected the workers in greatest need of protection.

"The government should move quickly to extend the reforms to domestic workers and bring them under the protection of the labour law," she said. -TradeArabia News Service