Bahrain Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa and India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid attend the IISS Regional Security Summit - The Manama Dialogue, in Manama, December 7, 2013. (File Photo)
Indian workers who face threats from their employers in Bahrain should immediately approach the authorities, India's ambassador to Bahrain Mohan Kumar has said.
"If there is any explicit threat a person faces, they should visit the nearest police station and inform the embassy," the Gulf Daily News quoted the ambassador as saying.
"They should not accept any bodily threats," he said on Friday during the monthly Open House.
An Indian worker had complained about being threatened by his employer after asking for his passport.
The envoy also urged the registered 28 Indian associations in Bahrain to play bigger roles in dealing with the community and labour problems.
He advised Indians not to sign blank documents, which could be misused by some employers to slap travel bans on them.
"I would like to emphasise here that no one should sign blank papers or even documents in which they are not aware of the terms and conditions," he said.
Mohan Kumar said the embassy has also come across cases of misuse of identification cards of workers by telecommunication companies, which resulted in workers being banned from travelling.
He said they will write a letter to the companies highlighting the problem.
The embassy also issued guidelines concerning labour rights in the middle-east country.
The guidelines will be distributed to ministries, expatriate associations and workers, the report said.
The guidelines in English will be translated to Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam languages so that more Indians can be aware of their rights, the diplomat said.
The document addresses several issues, including steps to file cases of non-payment of wages, passport confiscation, and expired visas among others.