DAMMAM, 13 August 2003 — In a major crackdown on illegal workers in the Eastern Province, Passports Department officials have arrested nearly 70 foreigners of different nationalities.
According to officials, all the arrested foreigners will be interrogated and their cases investigated in order to clarify the involvement of those who employed them. Once investigations are complete, the foreigners will be deported. All 70 of those arrested had illegal documents and some did not even have employment visas.
A source at the Passports Office confirmed that some were on visit visas and the department is investigating how they got the visas. Compared to Jeddah, the Eastern Province has fewer illegal workers. Jeddah has huge numbers of illegal workers since thousands of Umrah performers come there every year and many never reach Makkah or Madinah.
Instead they take up jobs illegally and every year the Passports Department arrests number of them and then deports them.
This is so common that it has become a ritual. At the end of Haj, the Passports Department begins a crack down on illegal immigrants and many give themselves up for passage back to their homes.
The Eastern Province, on the other hand, has never had large numbers of illegal immigrants. The Passports Department said that the present number of arrests has spurred them to conduct raids in companies where illegal workers may be employed.
In the Eastern Province there are many cases of a worker failing to get a release or a no-objection certificate from their employers. The workers leave the country on an exit- only visa and then returns on a business visa to take up a new job.
The new employer lists them as consultants for a year at the end of which the company provides them with a regular employment visa and they become a legal resident.
Strictly speaking, this violates Saudi Labor Law since the individual is working in a company when he is here on a business visa, but the system forces companies to use this shady method.
