MUSCAT: Oman plans to deport over 1,000 foreigners found to be working illegally on a multi-billion dollar project to expand Muscat International Airport, in a sign of tensions between its labor policy and its big infrastructure building plans.
“The companies for which these illegal workers were working will be fined and the workers will be deported,” Salim bin Said Al-Badi, director-general of labor welfare at the Ministry of Manpower, was quoted as saying this week by local media.
Times of Oman said the laborers were employed to build a new terminal at the airport, but did not have the necessary work permits for the construction sector. Instead, they held visas to work in restaurants, coffee shops and barber shops, and as tailors and housemaids.
The media reports said at least some of the workers were from Bangladesh, but did not give details or name the companies involved.
There are over 1.5 million foreign workers in Oman, many of them from south and southeast Asia; they far outnumber the Omani citizens working in the private sector.
The government wants to limit the number of foreigners, in order to make more jobs available for Omanis and reduce the amount of wages remitted abroad.
The Al Shabiba daily quoted Minister of Transport and Communications Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Futaisi as saying the deportations would not delay the planned completion of the airport project by the end of 2016.
Oman to deport over 1,000 expats
Oman to deport over 1,000 expats
