Around 100 jobless Bahraini graduates staged a peaceful sit-in protest on Saturday, September 1, at the education ministry in Manama, demanding the nationalization of the sector's workforce.
Wearing yellow headbands and flanked by the police, the protestors, most of whom were graduate teachers who had never been employed, were unable to meet Education Minister Mohammad Jassem Al-Ghatam. They will hold another sit-in in one week.
Members of Bahrain's consultative council estimate the unemployment figure at 25 percent, or between 20,000 and 30,000 Bahrainis from a mostly young population who account for 60 percent of the country's 700,000 residents. –(AFP, Manama)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
