RIYADH – Those sections of foreigners who are exempted from deportation will be counted as one-fourth of other expat workers in the Nitaqat Saudization program calculation, according to instructions issued by Labor Minister Adel Fakieh. This category of foreigners include Burmese nationals who fled their homeland earlier due to persecution there. However, there is a condition that the number of these foreigners in a firm should not exceed 50 percent of its workforce. In such cases, they will be considered as equal to other foreigners, according to Hitab Al-Anzi, spokesman of the ministry. “The new decision is aimed at legalizing these sections of foreigners and encouraging employers to hire them instead of resorting to recruitment from abroad,” he said. – SPA