Curbs on renewal of permits in ‘yellow’ firms

The Ministry of Labor has banned the renewal of work permits to expats working in the yellow-zone companies under Nitaqat. However, the new order will not affect expats who have been in the Kingdom for less than four years, a local daily reported on Saturday.
A source at the ministry said the order would be applicable to those who had been in the Kingdom for four years or more. The ministry would not give any grace to those who have worked less than four years with their current employers in the yellow zone, even if the total period of their stay in the Kingdom was four years or more.
The order came into force on Oct. 25.
“The ministry looks at the issue date of an expatriate worker’s first labor permit to calculate the period of his stay in the Kingdom,” the source said, adding that the present period of four years would be further reduced to two years after the expiry of six months from the implementation date of this order.
Businessmen have been demanding that the ministry find solutions to the problems of the yellow and red categories of establishments so that the commercial operations could be normalized without any waste of time for any one, the daily reported.