60 companies to take part in job fair for Pakistanis

The Pakistan Embassy will host another job fair for illegal workers following the enthusiastic response from job seekers, as well as the companies that participated in the last job fair.
The fair will be organized at the Pakistan International School in Nasiriya on July 18. The embassy also plans to organize a job fair in the Eastern Province on July 25-26 at the Pakistan International School in Alkhobar.
The fair will be organized after Taraweeh prayers between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Pakistan Ambassador Muhammad Naeem Khan said: “We thank Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Crown Prince Salman, Ministry of Labor and Interior, and other ministries for the amnesty deadline extension from July 3 to Nov. 3 for illegal workers to legalize their status. We plan to use the extended time efficiently to rectify the status of Pakistani workers.”
He said that more than 60 Pakistani, local and multinational companies have registered for the fair to recruit workers, adding, “We are expecting more than 5,000 workers to seek employment.”
Moeenuddin, community welfare attache at the embassy, said that more than 16,000 undocumented Pakistani workers, including women and children, have approached the Pakistani diplomatic missions in the Kingdom for emergency exit certificates during the first phase of the amnesty deadline.
He urged runaway Pakistani expatriates working in companies in the red and yellow categories of the nationalization scheme and those searching for jobs while residing illegally in the Kingdom to attend the job fair.
The embassy hopes that the participation of companies would not only help in achieving the objective of hiring workers from different professions, but would also facilitate hundreds of Pakistani workers seeking jobs before the Nov. 3 deadline.
The Labor Ministry had earlier advised illegal expatriates to legalize their status before Nov. 3. More than 3.5 million correction cases have been registered during the first phase of the amnesty.
The government has stressed that penalties will be imposed on violators and their employers following the expiry of the amnesty deadline. Companies recruiting illegal workers could face jail terms of up to two years and fines of up to SR 100,000.