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‘No residency cap for skilled workers’

Dubai: Facing a barrage of criticism over its proposal to impose a six-year residency cap on expatriates, Bahrain has said the plan will be confined to semi-skilled workers.

If implemented, the plan will have its impact on the large Indian community in Bahrain. The proposal will affect about 80 per cent of the expatriates in the Gulf state and offer locals more employment opportunities, Labour Minister Majeed Al Alawi said recently.

“The residency time ceiling proposed for foreign workers in the Gulf is meant to ensure that unskilled expatriates taking part in development projects do not stay here for longer periods that might entitle them the rights of immigrant workers under U.N. conventions,” Al Alawi said.

Expatriate workers and their families staying in Bahrain and the Gulf will be entitled to housing, education and health care under the global conventions, the Minister said. They could also be entitled to citizenship after five years’ residency under international labour treaties Bahrain will soon sign with its neighbours.

Al Alawi said his proposed six-year residency cap on expatriate workers in the Gulf was off the table for next month’s Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Doha. — PTI

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