Bluewolf,
That is the problem then, and where you should be focusing your efforts. My field does have people in the same job for years and it is a failure of the organisations that I supply to recruit permanently that leads to it.
Have you considered lobbying for increased training numbers from the local system?
Or organising locally and bidding for the contract yourselves?
You will probably still need contractors for a time whilst you get the numbers through a training system, but once you have the numbers through you could bid much lower than any external company.
It is hard when the government seems blind to the issue. Especially when the solution is easy, but just takes a long time! In my field and country I can to some extent understand it, it takes 15 years of training to get our staff qualified, and there are elections every 5 years, so anything the current government does will only benefit the opposition.
You would have thought that under the system of government in Bahrain, at least taking a long term view would be one of the advantages, but it seems not in this case.