Page 135 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (IV)_Neat

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PASSPORT DEPARTMENT
(From the report by Mr. Kudhim Asfur, Passport Officer.)
'Flic revenue in 1368 was Its. .14,400, about Its. 12,000 more than in the previous year. New book
passports arrived at the beginning of the year and 556 were issued. The new passports contain on each
leaf a design showing the Bahrain (lag, the Al-Khalifah monogram and crossed daggers. In addition to
book passports over 6,600 travel passes were issued to subjects of Bahrain travelling to Arabia and Gulf
ports.
Over 1,200 people applied for passports to proceed to the Shia Holy Cities in Iraq, many of the
pilgrims subsequently crossed the frontier and entered Persia, where they obtained entry without difficulty,
not producing their Bahrain passports. An unusually large number of Bahrain Arabs performed the
Pilgrimage to Mecca, of the 258 pilgrims from Bahrain a large proportion accompanied Shaikh Abdullah
bin Isa Al-Khalifah, whose party travelled to and from the Hejaz by air. Persians owning property and
long resident in Bahrain were given facilities by the Government to enable them to perform the Pilgrimage
and subsequently return to Bahrain. A number of Bahrain Arabs visited Europe on business and one or
two of them went on to America.
During the year 39,900 passengers were registered as having landed in Bahrain, of these 26,400
came by local craft, 9,500 were steamer passengers and 4,000 arrived by air. Again large numbers of
foreigners from Qatar, Muscat and the Trucial Coast entered Bahrain seeking, and in many cases finding,
employment; 1,769 Trucial Coast Arabs, 736 Qatar subjects and 970 Muscatis were registered as entering
Bahrain. Most of these people were apparently insolvent when they arrived, they found work as watchmen,
labourers and other less reputable professions.

In addition to the Gulf Arabs who entered Bahrain 1,505 Indians and 1,091 Pakistanis came into
the country. Most of them claimed to be relatives of people already living in Bahrain, they set up in
business as tailors, barbers, washermen, jewellers and small shopkeepers, etc. Over 200 shops in the
Manama bazaar are now occupied by Indians and certain areas in the town resemble the back streets
of Karachi. The presence of so many new Indians in the bazaar, who apart from paying shop rents invest
no money in the country and who are, for the most part, not engaged in business which is profitable to
Bahrain, is resented by the local population. Foreigners such as these enjoy more liberty in Bahrain
than they would in their own countries, they pay no taxes, they have complete religious freedom and they
enjoy the amenities which arc provided by the Government such as free education and medical facilities,
also they have the right of being elected as members of the municipal councils.
A number of Persians claiming to be Bahrain subjects by birth applied for Bahrain passports.
An arrangement was made whereby such persons arc called upon to prove in the Bahrain Court that they
had in fact been born in the country. There is not yet in Bahrain any registration of births or deaths,
the matter has been under consideration for some time but owing to the strong popular prejudice against
registration no order has been made on the subject. Out of 74 applicants 59 persons satisfied the Court
that they were born in the country and were granted Bahrain passports.
During 1368, 4,899 dhows and launches arrived in Bahrain, their crews and passengers were
registered. Numbers of Bahrain Arabs continued to go to Saudi Arabia to work in the oil fields and with
Arab contractors; it is thought that the number of Bahrain men now working abroad is in the neighbourhood
of 5,000. This situation is responsible for a shortage of labourers in Bahrain, to a certain extent Arabs
from Oman and the Trucial Coast have filled the places of the Bahrain Arabs who arc working abroad.
The Government has no means cf supervising or checking the movements of foreigners once they
have entered the country nor can it verily whether or not they leave Bahrain, so many foreigners arc now
entering Bahrain that it may soon be necessary for the Government to set up an immigration office, to work
in conjunction with the Passport and Police departments in order to ensure that people entering Bahrain
in transit do actually leave the countryand that people who hold time limited visas do not overstay their
visas period.