JEDDAH: Nearly 463,000 passports are likely to be issued next month to Yemenis who have have rectified their residency status in the Kingdom, a Yemeni minister has said.

“There is ongoing cooperation with the relevant agencies in the Kingdom in this regard, and we will organize an awareness campaign,” Alawi Bafakih, minister for expatriates in the Yemeni government, was quoted as saying by local media on Sunday.

The campaign will be conducted next month through the Yemeni Embassy and Consulate, as well as consular missions, to target resident Yemenis in various regions of the Kingdom, with a view to issuing passports to them, he said.

Bafakih appreciated the support of the Saudi Ministry of Labor to provide the Yemeni Ministry of Expatriates with an Attaché of the Embassy in Riyadh and a consulate in Jeddah for Labor and other issues concerning Yemenis.

“I met with officials from the Saudi Ministry of Labor and we have agreed on continuous coordination and direct communication on an almost weekly basis with the leaders of the ministry. This is to discuss the problems that may encounter Yemeni labor in different ways, which is a great step forward that reflects the understanding of Saudis of the situation of Yemenis,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Yemeni nationals have sought refuge in Saudi Arabia since the Houthi coup and the following war in that country in March last year.