Government policies of Bahrainisation are crippling the garment industry claims garment factories in Bahrain. Factory owners and managers say they are battling to survive because they can''t afford to employ Bahraini workers.

Some have already been forced to close after the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry announced that at least 36 per cent of garment factory employees should be Bahraini.

This has since been lowered to 25pc, but for some this reduction came too late. "In February, we requested extra labours from the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry, which demanded that 36pc of our staff should be Bahraini," said Bahrain Garments manager K S Perera, whose factory closed down on July 3.

"This percentage has currently gone down to 25pc, but at that time we were unable to cope with this request."

Mr Perera said there had been a drop in demand over the past two years in the garment sector.He added that this made it difficult to cope with higher salaries demanded by Bahraini staff.

"There are almost 25 registered garment factories, many of which are currently dragging along with the risk of closing down at any point," he said.

Hundreds of expatriate workers are employed by Bahrain''s garment factories on salaries of around BD40 per month, plus food and lodging.