The circumstances that led to the suspect's arrest were not provided. Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi admitted in press statements last year that his ministry was unable to stop this phenomenon. The prices of forged work visas in the black market vary from SR5,000 to SR30,000 depending on the country the worker is coming from. Visas much in the demand are those for recruitment from Yemen, Bangladesh and Pakistan.The Labor Ministry cited a drop in recruitment last year. It said in statistical report that last year 1,539,655 work visas were issued last year against 1,808,769 in 2008 with a drop of 14.9 percent. The statistics also said recruitment visas issued for the private sector came down from 1,241,960 visas in 2008 to 982,420 last year with a decrease of 20.9 percent while work visas issued for government departments were 61,143 last year against 70,924 in the year 2008 with a decline of 13.8 percent.The decline in work visas may be attributed in part to the global economic downturn that has reduced demand for manpower.