MANAMA, Feb 10: Around 1,300 migrant workers helping to build a luxury coastal development in Bahrain have gone on strike to demand higher wages, a company official said on Sunday.

The workers are employed by the contracting firm GP Zachariades to work on the Durrat al-Bahrain development in the south of the wealthy Gulf archipelago.

“Around 1,300 workers on the Durrat al-Bahrain project have been on strike since Saturday to demand an increase in their wages,” the firm’s health and safety chief Abdul Wahed al-Umran said.

The workers have been confined to their living quarters by police while labour ministry officials try to persuade them to call off the strike, Umran added.

Official figures state Bahrain has approximately 270,000 expatriate workers who are mostly from the Asian sub-continent and employed mainly in unskilled jobs.

Umran said the labourers downed tools after hearing that around 750 workers employed by Almoayyed Contracting Group last week forced the firm to boost their salaries after going on strike for two days.

The striking workers on the Durrat al-Bahrain project earn between $319 and $478 a month, Umran said.—AFP