Saudi Gazette report RIYADH – More than 1.5 million expats have changed their residence status since April ahead of a planned crackdown on undocumented foreign workers, the Ministry of Labor said on Saturday. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah announced on April 6 a three-month grace period to correct the work and residency status of unregulated foreigners or allow them to leave the Kingdom without any penalties before July 3. As many as 1,581,227 foreigners have benefited from the grace period by the end of the eighth week since the start of the grace period, and a total of 926,330 foreigners have renewed their work permits during the period, said the ministry. Some 329,468 workers have changed their sponsorship, and this figure makes up 21 percent of the total beneficiaries. Those who renewed their work permits constituted 59 percent of the beneficiaries. According to the ministry, Riyadh region comes first in the number of beneficiaries.
A total of 112,200 workers in the region have changed their sponsorship and this figure makes up 34 percent of the total beneficiaries Kingdomwide. Makkah region, including Jeddah, comes second in sponsorship change with a total of 78,434 workers (24 percent) and it is followed by the Eastern Province with 66,627 workers (20 percent). A total of 16,142 foreigners changed their sponsorship in Madinah region (five percent), 15836 in Al-Qassim (five percent), 9355 in Assir (three percent), 6538 in Hail, 6248 in Najran, 5917 in Jazan and 1093 in Tabuk. The ministry said that a total of 141,034 workers have so far changed their profession by taking advantage of the grace period. Nearly 30 percent of these workers (42,432 in number) changed their profession in the eighth week alone. A total of 33,484 workers (24 percent) changed their profession to labor (Amil), and it was followed by marketing specialist (19 percent) benefiting 27,337 workers. Other professions are heavy vehicle driver (13 percent), ordinary labor or Amil Aadi (11 percent), sales representative (nine percent), accountant and trailer driver (seven percent each), and salesman (five percent). The ministry's statistics showed that among those who changed their sponsorship to commercial activities, 155,038 workers (51 percent) moved to construction sector while 66,598 (22 percent) changed to wholesale and retail sector. Other major sectors are food service (six percent), downstream industries, and cleaning, maintenance and operation (five each) and workshop and maintenance shops (four percent). Huge crowds of foreign workers have queued for long periods in sweltering heat outside government offices and their own consulates in recent weeks, fearing fines and possible deportation if they fail to legalize their status before July 3. More than 180,000 have also left the country, the passports authority said last week. Registering foreigners properly has become important for the labour ministry after it imposed a new system of quotas last year that stipulate how many employees in particular types of position should be Saudi nationals. Under Saudi law, foreigners must be sponsored by their employer and must work only in the field registered on their residence papers. In practice, many work for other companies and in different jobs
