It said the step was in line with the decision by the Council of Ministers that the government would bear the fees on behalf of the disabled. "This will be effective March 1," it added.

The ministry, however, warned the disabled to adhere to the rules and regulations that prevent them from bringing to the Kingdom more than a single driver, housemaid and nurse. It also said the guardians of the disabled should sign a pledge to meet all the expenses of the foreign manpower imported in their names.

The ministry said the new rules of recruiting foreign manpower were formulated by a special committee comprising representatives from the ministries of Social Affairs, Health, Education, Interior, Finance and Labor.

It said the committee also decided to exempt the disabled from the condition of financial ability and said the monthly assistance paid to them by the Ministry of Social Affairs should be enough if they had no other source of income.

Meanwhile, according to Osman Abdo Hashim, director of King Abdullah Center for Disabled Children in Jeddah, there are more than a million disabled men and women in the Kingdom, of whom only about 200,000 receive a monthly assistance from the ministry.

"This is a large number of disabled people in a thinly populated country like Saudi Arabia," he said, adding that the causes of disability in the Kingdom were mainly marriages among relatives, traffic accidents and medical mistakes.

On the other hand, the Health Ministry said between 400,000 and 500,000 babies are born in the Kingdom annually. Of them, between 400 and 500 are born with various disabilities.

The ministry said it spends about SR50 million annually on the medical treatment of disabled babies.

According to a specialist in disability, a total of 44,456 Saudi citizens have disabilities in movement, 9,522 in eyesight, 5,773 in hearing, and 29,509 are mentally handicapped.