Saudi authorities have launched a vigorous crackdown against illegal expats who did not avail of the seven-month amnesty period granted by the Kingdom to correct their status. The Saudi government has been very considerate in its decision on the crackdown and it extended the first amnesty period to allow hundreds of thousands of illegals to correct their status.

Although the government did its best to facilitate illegal expats to correct their status, the authorities at the lower level did not work on a war-footing basis resulting in inordinate delays in the processing of documents. This, as a consequence, prevented many people from correcting their status within the amnesty period.

While it is highly commendable that the Saudi government gave enough time to the illegals to legalize their status, there are some issues that need to be addressed to make sure a similar situation does not arise in future.

Most of these illegals came to the country and got jobs with the connivance of their Saudi sponsors, who took money and allowed them to work elsewhere knowing that they are violating the law. So far, we don’t see action against such sponsors. While the illegals have violated the law by not adhering to the regulations, the Saudi sponsors are equally responsible for the situation.

As the authorities have launched the crackdown against undocumented workers, they should also turn the heat on “illegal sponsors” who abetted these illegals to flout regulations for such a long time. The errant sponsors should be banned for a certain period from recruiting workers or sponsoring them so that others take a lesson from these steps.

The government’s crackdown will be completely successful if both the expats and Saudis play their role and comply with the rules and regulations. — Nasir Ahmed, Jeddah