United States Report on the Status of Minorities in the Near East and North Africa - Bahrain

Parent Category: GeoRegions

Category: Asia

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Bahrain

The law grants citizenship to Arab applicants who have resided in the country for 15 years and non-Arab applicants who have resided in the country for 25 years. There was a lack of transparency in the naturalization process, and there were numerous reports that the citizenship law was not applied uniformly. There were allegations that the government allowed foreign Sunni employees of the security services that had lived in the country for fewer than 15 years to apply for citizenship. There were also reports of Arab Shia who had resided in the country for more than 15 years and non-Arab foreign residents who had resided more than 25 years, who had not been granted citizenship.

Although the government asserted that the labor code for the private sector applies to all workers, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and international NGOs noted that, in practice, foreign workers faced discrimination in the workplace (see section 7).

According to the BICI, in mid-March rioters beat to death two South Asians and attacked 87 others. According to testimony provided to the BICI, the attackers targeted the individuals due to their ethnicity.