JEDDAH, 30 July — With the introduction of new labor regulations by the end of this year, expatriates in the Kingdom, for the first time, will be allowed to keep their passports with them, a senior Passports Department official said yesterday. He also said there were no plans to extend the two-year validity period of residence permits for foreigners.

Certain categories of foreign workers including professionals and those holding technical jobs can retain their passports as well as those of their family members and foreign workers under their sponsorship, said Major Fahd Al-Dakkan, director general of public affairs at the Passports Department.

“Lists of foreigners who would benefit from such provisions are currently being worked out. These include people in professional and technical jobs. They have to possess certain qualifications,” Al-Dakkan told Arab News by phone from his office in Riyadh. Under the current regulations, the employers keep passports of all non-Saudi workers who can get the document only for traveling out of the Kingdom.

Asked whether the authorities would increase the validity period of iqamas, or resident permits, to match with some neighboring countries, Al-Dakkan said there were no plans to extend the two-year duration. “The authorities consider the two-year period enough. There are no plans to change it,” he added.

Asked about effects of the decision to abolish travel permits for expatriates to move within the Kingdom on the ongoing campaign against illegal workers, Al-Dakkan said the campaign was being pursued with the same degree of vigor as before.

Thousands of people found violating the country’s immigration and labor laws have been rounded up over the past few weeks. They included people working with employers who were not their sponsors.

“We enforce the law by hunting down the violators. As part of the campaign, we mount search operations, deploy investigation teams, put up checkpoints and inspect vehicles. The campaign is proceeding as planned,” he said.

The new trend, as part of a wider plan to open up the economy, is to give expatriates greater freedom of movement, make residence laws more flexible and ensure a greater degree of transparency in dealings between Saudi employers and their foreign workers. Under the new law, the term employer will replace “kafeel” or sponsor in official documents. However, iqama and visa fees will remain unchanged.

Statistics included in a recent document by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs put the total number of civil servants in the Kingdom at 7.8 million. Of this, foreign workers account for 59 percent, or 4.6 million, and Saudis 41 percent, or 3.2 million. 

By the year 2030, the Kingdom’s population is expected to reach 38.5 million of whom 28.7 will be eligible to enter the job market.

The ministry said if the current volume of foreign labor is allowed to remain, job opportunities for Saudis would diminish over the next three decades. It said it wanted to see the number of foreign workers reduced by 150,000 a year. The government has already asked private companies to increase the number of their Saudi employees by five percent each year.

The document estimated that demand for labor in the next 30 years would be in the range of 13.5 million, of which 12.5 million should be Saudis. It suggested that by then the number of foreign workers in the country should not exceed one million.