Duel over residency cap continues

Manama: The standoff between Bahrain's labour minister and the business community has deepened after they publicly exchanged accusations over a proposal to impose a six-year residency cap on expatriate workers.

Labour Minister Dr Majeed Al Alawi earlier this month told Gulf News that the GCC labour ministers backed the proposal to preserve the Gulf identity and to ensure that unskilled foreign manpower do not live in the region for long periods that might entitle them to the rights of immigrant workers under UN conventions.

Criticism

However, Al Alawi has since faced a litany of criticism from the business community and on Thursday, a joint committee of businesspeople and MPs said that the minister's proposal is 'irresponsible' and should be stopped.

The committee, made up of members of the Bahrain Businessmen's Association and MPs, warned that the residency cap would have negative effects on the economy and would make investors shun the region.

"The minister has no right to make a statement on the issue before a law is issued and published in the official gazette," Abdul Jalil Al Ansari, a businessman, was reported as saying at the joint committee meeting.

Al Alawi, a former opposition figure who joined the government in 2002, yesterday charged that some members of the business community were compromising national interests for the sake of their own interests.

"Those who have opposed the proposal are business people who prefer the protection of their company interests over the defence of their nation," Al Alawi said in a brief press statement. "They are so keen about their self interests that they do not really care that the nationals will be a minority in their own country and expatriates the majority."