DUBAI: Support is growing for time-limits on the residency of the millions of expatriates living in the Gulf, seen by some of the region’s governments and nationals as posing a demographic threat.

Foreigners make up about 13 million, or 37 per cent, of the 35 million population across the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

They come mainly from the Asian sub-continent and fuel the booming economies of the oil-rich Arab bloc, which comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

GCC governments are becoming increasingly concerned that the rising number of outsiders, many of whom work as labourers on construction sites, could suffocate the indigenous cultures of the conservative Muslim states.

Majid al-Alawi, the labour minister of Bahrain, said in an interview last month that foreign workers represented “a danger worse than the atomic bomb or an Israeli attack”.

“I am not exaggerating that the number (of foreign workers) will reach almost 30 million in ten years from now,” he added.

Currently, most expatriate workers can have their residency permits renewed periodically by their local employers, or “sponsors”, up until they reach retirement after the age of 60.

They are very rarely granted citizenship.

Alawi has called for foreign workers to be allowed to remain in GCC states for a maximum of six years. He said the commercial lobby in the region had thwarted a GCC plan to introduce such as system.

His counterpart in neighbouring Saudi Arabia has also backed a stay limit, warning that international pressure could one day force states in the region to grant foreigners a political voice.

“We do not want the day to come when we are forced to allow the (foreign) workers to be represented in our parliaments or municipal councils,” Ghazi al-Gosaibi told a Saudi newspaper.

“There is certainly a concern in GCC states that... they may be forced to accept something they don’t want... like granting more rights and maybe citizenship to migrant workers,” political analyst Ayed al-Manna said.

“From a Western viewpoint, workers who live here for 30 or 40 years should have rights. Their children should become citizens. These are basic things in the West,” added the Kuwait-based analyst.

It is not clear if a time-limit would apply to all foreigners, regardless of the type of job they do. But UAE Labour Minister Ali al-Kaabi said only non-skilled foreign workers would be affected.

An estimated 700,000 Asians, mostly from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, work in the booming construction industry in the UAE, where only around 20 per cent of the population of more than four million are natives.

Kaabi and GCC counterparts sought last month to underline the temporary status of some expatriate workers.

“We have agreed that Asian workers are contracted workers, not what some call immigrant workers,” Kaabi said at the end of a ministerial meeting to discuss ways of protecting the welfare of Asian workers in the Gulf.

He stressed these workers should stay in the GCC for a limited period.

“This would preserve the demographic nature of the countries of the region,” said Yousuf Abdulghani, the UAE labour ministry assistant undersecretary.

A spokesperson for the Indian embassy in the UAE said he would only comment on a residency cap if and when it was introduced.—AFP