Labor Ministry inspectors rounded up 158 foreigners working in various restaurants in Jeddah during the past two days. According to an official source from the ministry, those arrested included workers without residency permits and those working for different sponsors. Some of them were runaway workers and most of them working in the kitchen as cooks and helpers, the source added.

The operation was carried out by 38 labor inspectors at different places in Jeddah, and in accordance with Sections 38 an 39 of the labor laws of the Kingdom, the official pointed out.

Abdul Monem, director of the Makkah branch office of the Labor Ministry, said that inspections were carried out with the help of police.

According to the labor regulations, employers who hire workers who are being sponsored by someone else, will be subject to fines ranging from SR15,000 to SR100,000, imprisonment for a maximum period of six months and the suspension of the recruitment license for a period of five years.