E/CN.4/2002/77/Add.2 page 26 (c) People detained in connection with private debts; many of these are foreigners who have fallen foul of the “free visa” regime - a kind of privatized public visa service. 4. Concerns regarding the situation of foreigners 94. A distinction must be drawn between those imprisoned for wrongdoing and those detained for breaches of the residence requirements. In its interviews with prisoners, the delegation found that there were a very large number of foreigners serving prison sentences; many of them spoke neither Arabic nor English, yet had been sentenced without a lawyer present. Some were in prison for offences their employers said they had committed, which in some cases appeared to relate to labour-law disputes; they could call their consulates, but in practice the consulates let things be and neither visited them nor offered assistance. 95. Things are not the same for foreigners in the country without proper papers, who are placed in administrative detention pending expulsion. A large number of foreigners live in Bahrain, and broadly speaking, the country has migration under control. It is almost impossible to enter the country without a work permit issued by a Bahraini “sponsor” who acts as a guarantor in the event of problems and will cover the costs of expulsion. The system works as follows: foreigners are generally recruited in their home countries (quite often through a travel agency) with the backing of a “sponsor” living in Bahrain who is theoretically supposed, after contacting the immigration services, to provide them with the papers they need to enter and work in the country, pay the immigration tax and provide them with a return ticket, particularly when they are being taken on on short-term appointments. The “sponsor” - whom the foreigners generally never meet - takes a monthly or yearly slice off their wages which can amount to as much as US$ 1,500 per year. Among the abuses to which this system gives rise - according to what the delegation gathered - are failure to hand over the temporary residence permit that accompanies the work permit, and handing over the papers but confiscating the foreigners’ passports when they arrive at the airport. The insecurity of this system for many foreigners and the large amounts of money that it can earn for invisible “sponsors” encourage people to take advantage of foreign labour in a variety of petty forms of blackmail (while the unemployment rate for native Bahrainis is close to 30 per cent). 96. The authorities are well aware of the frequent abuses of the “free visa” system. They do not, however, appear to mount any investigations, even administrative ones, although articles 198 and 302 bis of the Criminal Code prescribe criminal penalties for “every person who employs forced labour to undertake any work or unjustifiably withholds all or some of their wages”. The practice is commonplace and those interviewed maintain that the sponsors are never brought to justice. The consular services of the main countries concerned - doubtless overwhelmed by the proliferation of “free visas” - once again provide virtually no assistance for their imprisoned nationals. 97. This situation requires careful consideration - perhaps by the Shura Council’s Human Rights Committee? - to ensure that there is better control over the way these foreigners’ rights, particularly their economic and social rights, are treated.