RIYADH, Oct 2: The Gulf state of Bahrain wants a six-year residency cap on the millions of expatriates working in the region, Bahrain’s Labour Minister Majeed Al-Alawi told the Dubai-based English newspaper, Gulf News, in an interview.

Mr Alawi said the expatriates were eroding the national character of states in the region and it was a cause of major concern. “The majority of foreign manpower in the region comes from different cultural and social backgrounds that cannot assimilate or adapt to the local cultures,” the Bahraini Labour Minister emphasised.

“In some areas of the Gulf, you can’t tell whether you are in an Arab Muslim country or in an Asian district,” Mr Alawi said in the interview. “We can’t call this diversity and no nation on earth could accept the erosion of its culture on its own land,” he added.

He said the residency cap would mean that “no foreign worker would be hired for a position that can be filled by a national”, adding that businesses in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should reduce their reliance on expatriate labour.

Mr Alawi said he was optimistic the proposal would be adopted by the council during its annual summit planned for December in Doha. Similar proposals have been on the table of GCC summits in past too, but so far the governments have hesitated to adopt for various reasons.

With a total population of 35 million of the Arab Gulf states, about 13 million, or 37 per cent, are expatriate workers, mainly from the Asian sub-continent. Indian and Pakistanis form the bulk of the expatriate work force in the region.