Ausamah AlAbsi

Ausamah AlAbsi, the CEO of the Bahraini government’s Labor Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) and Chairman of the National Committee to Combat Trafficking in Persons (NCCTIP), has played an instrumental role in increasing protections for trafficking victims and significantly reducing the vulnerability of migrant workers to human trafficking in Bahrain.

As CEO of the LMRA, and previously as the Deputy CEO for Special Projects in the Economic Development Board, Mr. AlAbsi has been a devoted advocate working to improve labor conditions for Bahrain’s large migrant worker population.  Under his leadership, the Government of Bahrain launched its National Referral Mechanism for Victims of Trafficking in Persons, which streamlines the identification of potential victims, ensures proper documentation and referral of cases, and provides assistance to potential victims until the resolution of their cases or voluntary return to their home countries.  Mr. AlAbsi also led the NCCTIP in establishing an impressive 200-bed shelter for trafficking victims that remains a model for its high standards of victim care and implemented programs to increase protections for Bahrain’s undocumented worker population. In addition, the LMRA launched the “flexible work permit” program in July 2017, an initiative that moves Bahrain away from a strict sponsorship system by allowing some foreign workers to live and work in the country as their own sponsors, in an effort to reduce their vulnerability to trafficking by unscrupulous employers.