Unrest victim's kin stranded at Bahrain airport
Manama, March 17, 2014
A Pakistani whose brother suffered severe brain damage during a brutal attack in Bahrain three years ago has been stranded at the airport for two nights.
Ghulam Nabi returned to Bahrain on Friday after visiting his sick mother in Pakistan, but was told his employer reportedly cancelled his visa, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.
He was forced to sleep rough in an immigration holding room at Bahrain International Airport while his friends collected money to buy him a plane ticket to Mandi Bahauddin, Pakistan.
He told the GDN before boarding the plane yesterday morning that he worried no-one would take care of his younger brother, Irfan Ahmad Bakhsh Muhammad, while he was gone.
Muhammad is still in a vegetative state at the BDF Hospital after a gang of 10 men attacked him with metal rods and wooden planks before severing his tongue in March 2011.
"I went to Pakistan on March 7 to see my mother, who is sick, and came back on Friday but I was shocked when the immigration officer told me that my visa is cancelled and I cannot enter Bahrain," he said.
"I freaked out, borrowed another passenger's phone and called the Pakistan Embassy and my friends.
"I was at the airport for two nights with four other people, who had the same issue.
"They kept us in a room under police supervision and allowed us to make calls, but no one could do anything in this case.
"The embassy pledged to bring me back on another visa within a week.
"I have no choice but to go back to Pakistan, but I am worried about my brother.
"If I don't get another visa I fear no-one will take care of my brother."
A spokesman from the Nationality, Passport and Residence Affairs said employers were not obligated to inform their employees about their visa status.
"Sponsors have the right to cancel visas and we can't stop them from doing so as they no longer require the services of that employee," he told the GDN yesterday.
"The employer can replace their employees if they are not happy with their job.
"We can't do anything in this regard as this is their right."
Pakistan Embassy community welfare attache Maqsood Qadir Shah pledged to help Nabi return to Bahrain.
"We will apply for a visa through the embassy and bring him back to Bahrain as he needs to be with his brother," he said.
Bahrain's courts director Mohammed Bucheery earlier confirmed Muhammad's family is set to receive BD50,000 ($129,682) compensation from the government within the next two months.
Muhammad was attacked during a campaign of violence waged against Bahrain's Asian community by anti-government thugs in the 2011 unrest. - TradeArabia News Service
