JEDDAH, 1 July — The Passport authorities announced yesterday that they have scrapped the travel pass required of foreign workers while moving from one region to another within the Kingdom.
The Passports Department confirmed a report published by Arab News on Tuesday that expatriates no longer required any official paper to travel between the Kingdom’s various cities and regions.
“The Directorate General of Passports has instructed all its departments and branch offices to cancel the requirement of paper for expatriates to travel within the Kingdom,” an official statement said.
“Expatriates can now move freely between the Kingdom’s regions without any paper attested by the Passports Department,” the statement said, adding that the new instructions were given as per the Interior Ministry’s directives.
The Passports Department said the new measure was adopted to ease movement of expatriates within the country and make them feel at home. However, the directorate warned foreign workers against violating the residence and labor rules. “They should not work for employers who are not their sponsors or violate the Kingdom’s labor regulations,” it added.
Visits to public transport centers including inter-city bus terminals and domestic airports confirmed that the authorities have started implementing the new regulation. Arab News dispatched this reporter to Madinah on Thursday without a travel paper to see whether Saudi Arabian Airlines and Passports Department officials were still demanding travel letters from expatriate passengers.
A high-ranking passport official at the Madinah airport said expatriates could now travel anywhere in the Kingdom without an official permission.
Muhammad Abdul Majeed, an engineer at Saudia’s technical division, was happy when he learned that I am a reporter traveling to check whether the new rule on travel papers was already in force. “You people care about your readers by exerting a lot of efforts in their service. This makes Arab News unique,” he said.
Asad Masoud Qurashi, a Pakistani, said the Saudia counter staff did not ask for any travel paper while issuing him boarding pass. “Last week the SAPTCO (Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company) office in Jeddah refused to sell me a ticket because I didn’t have a letter. I decided to travel this time by plane after reading the Arab News report. Nobody asked me for any letter. This is a big relief for expatriates,” Qurashi said, adding that some sponsors charged SR50 to get a travel paper countersigned by the Passports Department.
Muhammad Shakir, an official at the Sudanese mission in Madinah, said he knew that some of his friends had traveled to different regions without any papers. He said passport officials had told his friends that they were no longer required to carry any travel paper. “This is a good decision as it gives expatriates more freedom,” Shakir said.
But many Passports Department and Saudia officials are still unaware of the new rule. An official at Saudia’s ticketing counter in Madinah said they had not received any new information on the travel paper issue. But when he was showed the report in Arab News, he said: “Yes, you are correct. You don’t need any paper.”
Medhat Saber Rahman, an Egyptian sales executive, said there was some confusion regarding the implementation of the law, as passport officials in Riyadh and Jeddah were still demanding letters from travelers. “Maybe they are not aware of the new law and I hope this confusion will be over in a week or two,” he said.
However, he added that the SAPTCO office in Jeddah did not ask him for any paper yesterday. The supervisor at the public transport company in Jeddah said they have already started implementing the new law.
