YANBU, 3 June 2007 — Over 30 overstayers have taken advantage of an extension to a deadline to voluntarily leave the Kingdom set by the Department of Expatriate Affairs in Yanbu.
Maj. Lafi Al-Refaie, director of the department, said that most of them were families that had overstayed their visas. They visited the Passport Department in Yanbu to benefit from the amnesty and complete procedures to return to their home countries. The extended deadline ended on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Passport Department in Yanbu began a campaign yesterday to arrest overstayers and said it will begin following up on people that entered the Kingdom through seaports in Yanbu.
“The Department of Expatriate Affairs will start checking on expatriates that have not left on scheduled dates. Investigation teams will be deployed to gather information about them in areas where they live in order to apprehend them,” said Al-Refaie.
“Those that hand themselves in to the Passport Department now will not be included in the amnesty, which ended on Friday. The law is clear about this issue,” he said.
Many expatriates have brought their families on Haj or Umrah visas and then allowed them to overstay, he said, adding that there are no clear figures on the number of overstayers in Yanbu.
