A total of 25,000 expatriates have benefited from Bahrain’s flexi permit scheme in two years and four months.

Meanwhile, the overall number of illegal expatriate workers decreased by 25 per cent in 2018 – the biggest drop over the past five years.

The Labour and Social Development Ministry released the figures in response to claims alleging that the national workforce dropped by 3.6pc last year.

The national workforce in the public sector only dropped as a large number of Bahraini government employees accepted the voluntary retirement scheme.

According to statistics, the overall number of public employees dropped by 13pc, from 53,932 in the first half of 2018 to 46,712 at the end of the first half of this year, as 7,220 Bahrainis opted to retire.

Thus the overall combined number of public and private Bahraini employees dropped to 153,103 at the end of the first half of this year, down from 158,814 at the end of the first half last year.

The number of Bahrainis working in the private sector rose to 105,158 during the first half of this year, up from 104,884 last year although 5,048 private sector Bahraini employees retired last year and during the first half of this year.

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