Bahrain's Data Deficit: Disappearing Numbers and Broken Links
July 8, 2026
9 min read
9 min read
For researchers and the general public, accessing information and data on migrant labour in the region is exceedingly difficult, despite the Gulf states' own claims of up-to-date statistical practices and open data as part of their long-term national vision strategy.
Aggregate statistics on the number of migrant workers in the private and domestic sectors are partially accessible, due to initiatives such as the GCC-Stat (Statistical Centre for the Gulf Cooperation Council - Opens in new tab) and the International Labour Organisation. However, data disaggregated by nationality remains scarce, and discrepancies among government institutions sometimes undermine reliability.
Far more elusive is data relating to migrant labour rights, including workplace injury, disability and survivors' compensation, wage theft, number and types of labour complaints, number of absconding cases, and so on. This gap in information forces researchers to rely on surveys and interviews, conducted in countries of origin or by organisations based outside the region.
There is a pressing need for Gulf states to make public the data they hold or could readily compile. This is particularly important during the current period of economic strain and the ever-increasing cases of non-payment of wages in the aftermath of the US-Israel war on Iran. Access to data is also significant to guide policy relating to large-scale infrastructure projects planned for the coming years, all of which depend heavily on migrant labour. While this brief focuses on Bahrain as a case study, the issues it raises are not unique to the Kingdom; they reflect a common pattern across all six states.
Missing Figures in Bahrain’s Social Insurance Organization Reports
Migrant workers are partially covered by Bahrain's social protection system. Employers are required to make monthly contributions to cover end-of-service indemnity, employment injury insurance, disability and survivors' benefits, and unemployment insurance. For unemployment insurance, migrant workers also contribute a portion of the required payments themselves.
As the institution responsible for administering these schemes, the SIO is one of the country's most important sources of statistical information on the private sector migrant workforce. Its quarterly and annual reports - Opens in new tab provide disaggregated data on Bahraini and non-Bahraini workers registered under the social protection system, with further breakdowns by gender, salary, and age group.
Previously - Opens in new tab, SIO reports included a dedicated chapter on registered workplace injuries, with statistics on the cause and type of injury, including fatal and disabling injuries, as well as whether the accident occurred at the workplace or on the road. However, since the end of 2023, the SIO has stopped reporting on work injuries entirely. The quarterly reports, which contained over 40 pages, are - Opens in new tabnow reduced to 30 - Opens in new tab. (See Below)
Additionally, SIO’s work injury data contained evident discrepancies. For instance, injuries in the private sector have consistently shown higher figures for Bahraini citizens than for migrant workers. In the second quarter of 2023 - Opens in new tab, SIO recorded 161 work injuries among Bahraini citizens in the private sector, compared to 148 among migrant workers, despite migrant workers making up approximately 79% of the private sector workforce - Opens in new tab for the same period, according to the Labour Market Regulatory Authority. Furthermore, migrant workers are overwhelmingly concentrated in high-risk, injury-prone jobs and sectors such as construction.
While the SIO only reports on registered workplace injuries, registration alone does not guarantee that workers receive compensation under social insurance law. The process for claiming lump-sum compensation for injury, disability, or death is lengthy and complicated, and low-income migrant workers are rarely able to navigate it without cooperation from their employers and support from embassies or migrant community groups. This is especially true for death compensation, which requires transnational coordination between stakeholders in Bahrain (such as government agencies, employers, and embassies) and the heirs of the deceased.
Even before these omissions, the SIO reports lacked essential data such as the number of migrants contributing to and receiving unemployment benefits, the total employer contributions to end-of-service benefits, the actual amounts disbursed to migrant workers upon contract termination, and the lump-sum compensation paid to workers or their heirs in cases of work injury, disability, or death. All such data can be readily compiled by the SIO if there is sufficient political will.
The Ministry of Labour: From Comprehensive Annual Reports to a Few Pages and Photos
Bahrain's Ministry of Labour is obliged – among other things – to regulate the private sector labour market, protect workers' rights, register complaints, mediate disputes, and oversee occupational safety and health (OSH) in the private sector (including worksites and accommodations), and investigate work-related injuries.
Despite this broad mandate, the Ministry's public data reports - Opens in new tab reflect a notable decline in transparency. Comprehensive, detailed reports from previous years have been replaced by brief publications consisting largely of photos of ministerial activities and meetings, with statistics that do not add up.
In the past, the Ministry’s annual statistical report exceeded 200 pages - Opens in new tab, covering a range of issues the Ministry has overseen, including chapters on employment relations, inspections and OSH, job training, social protection, the number of labour strikes, and more. The section on labour inspections was particularly comprehensive, revealing details such as inspection capacity, the number of businesses and workers inspected annually, and violations recorded. The annual reports also included comparative tables tracking inspection campaigns and initiatives against previous years.
In 2021, drawing on the Ministry's original 2018 annual report, MRRORS documented how Bahrain's labour inspection was inadequate, including having only 12 inspectors for the entire private sector. Following this the Ministry replaced its previous reports, including the 2018 edition. The 2018 report, which exceeded 200 pages - Opens in new tab and is no longer available on the Ministry's website, has been replaced by a 20-page document - Opens in new tab, several pages of which are dedicated to images of ministerial activities. The chapter on inspections has been reduced to a few paragraphs on the number of inspections carried out and how many citizen and migrant workers were inspected.
The numbers in these reports do not always add up. In the 2022 annual report - Opens in new tab, the inspections section states that Ministry inspectors conducted 2,587 visits to establishments employing 168,386 workers. Yet the very next line reports that of those workers, 84,845 were Bahraini nationals and 401,135 were foreign workers, a total that is higher than the figure cited in total. No explanation is provided for the discrepancy.
It is also worth noting that the Ministry of Labour has not published - Opens in new tab an annual report since 2022. This further reflects the broader trend of declining transparency across ministries and institutions in Bahrain.
Broken Links and Missing Data: The Labour Market Regulatory Authority
Bahrain's Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) oversees a range of issues pertaining to migrant workers in the private sector, including domestic workers. The body’s responsibilities include, among other things, issuing work permits, receiving labour complaints (such as contract violations and passport confiscations), referring complaints to labour courts, handling absconding reports, and operating the Wage Protection System.
The LMRA also operates the Bahrain Labour Market Indicators - Opens in new tab (BLMI) – a platform of regularly updated statistical tables, charts, and analysis designed to monitor key aspects of Bahrain's labour market. According to LMRA, BLMI serves as the principal source of information and statistics on the labour market. It is also the only publicly available source of data on the number of workers, including domestic workers, broken down by nationality.
Much like the Ministry of Labour's reports, the BLMI's quarterly dashboard has seen a noticeable reduction in detail in recent years. Since the second quarter of 2023, several sections are no longer publicly available, including data on new entrants to the labour market, wages, the labour cost gap between citizens and migrant workers, and workers hired by establishment size, among others (see screenshot below for comparison). Compounding this, the links to present data on the website are no longer accessible - Opens in new tab.
Screenshot of BLMI Dashboard for 2nd Quarter 2023 compared to Screenshot of BLMI Dashboard for 4th Quarter 2025
Screenshot of BLMI for 2nd Quarter 2023
The LMRA is arguably the primary government institution with access to the most important data on migrant workers, which could readily be compiled and shared publicly. This includes, among other things, the number and type of complaints filed by workers at the authority, cases of passport confiscation and contract substitution, and compliance with the Wage Protection System. Such information is rarely made public, and when it is, it tends to surface only in passing during media interviews with officials. For example, when discussing compliance with the Wage Protection System during its first two phases, the then CEO of the LMRA noted in a 2022 interview that actual commitment to paying wages through the system was approximately 61%.
Calling for greater transparency and the systematic compilation of data is important not only in its own right but also as a check on misinformation impacting policymaking. Lawmakers in Bahrain have at times relied on faulty information to justify restrictions on migrant workers’ rights. Examples include legislation impeding workers’ ability to change jobs. This was premised on the false data and information that a growing number of migrants switched employers after a year of employment, and that many workers with absconding charges apply for the labour registration program (previously known as the flexi-permit).
While this brief has focused primarily on Bahrain, the lack of transparency and data extends across the Gulf. Other countries in the region sit on important data that could be readily compiled and made publicly available. In the UAE, for example, migrant workers are required to contribute to a mandatory unemployment insurance scheme and are eligible to receive compensation after one year of contributions. Yet aggregate data on how much workers contribute and how much they receive in return are publicly unavailable. No Gulf state records the type or number of work injuries sustained by domestic workers. These are not peripheral concerns. Understanding the scale and nature of the issues migrant workers face across the Gulf and developing meaningful policies to address them requires, as a first step, transparent and accessible public data.
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