JEDDAH: Undocumented expat workers seeking to correct their status during the new 90-day-amnesty will be able to return to the Kingdom by adhering to legal procedures, the General Directorate of Passports (GDP) announced Monday on their official Twitter account @AlJawazatKSA.
By approaching the Passport Departments to solve their status starting March 29, illegal workers “will be exempt from the consequences associated with the “deportee fingerprint system” and will be able to return to the Kingdom on the condition of pursuing legal methods to gain entry.
The statement also added that illegal immigrants working on correcting their status during the 90-day grace period under the Interior Ministry’s “Nation without Violations” campaign would be cleared of any fines or penalties linked to violating the Saudi residency law, labor system and boarder security in the Kingdom.
Those affected by the campaign are over-stayers, who came to the Kingdom for a Haj or Umrah visit or transit.
Other individuals that will benefit from the amnesty are workers who came to the Kingdom with a work permit but did not obtain an Iqama identity card within 90 days after arrival; infiltrators crossing the Saudi border; residents with expired Iqamas; pilgrims who performed Haj without getting a Haj permit; and workers who escaped from their employers.
Previously, illegal workers and over-stayers who have their fingerprints taken prior to deportation under the “deportee fingerprint system” were not allowed to re-enter the country.
In 2013, a similar campaign took place to legalize the status of undocumented workers in the Kingdom. Back then, a three-month amnesty was announced in April 2013 before late King Abdullah extended the grace period to November 2013.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said that over 2.5 million violators left the country under that campaign.
90-day amnesty period allows illegal workers to return to Saudi Arabia
90-day amnesty period allows illegal workers to return to Saudi Arabia
Saudi, Pakistan defense chiefs discuss ‘measures needed to halt’ Iranian attacks on Kingdom
RIYADH: Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Pakistan’s Chief of Defense Forces Asim Munir discussed Iran’s attacks on the Kingdom, amid the escalating military conflict in the Middle East.
“We discussed Iranian attacks on the Kingdom and the measures needed to halt them within the framework of our Joint Strategic Defense Agreement,” Prince Khalid wrote on social media early on Saturday.
“We stressed that such actions undermine regional security and stability and expressed hope that the Iranian side will exercise wisdom and avoid miscalculation.”
The US and Israel began a large-scale military campaign against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has since attacked a number of sites across the Gulf.
Tehran has also attacked US and Israeli military assets as the war as escalated, impacting lives in the peaceful Arabian Gulf peninsula and risked shaking the global economy as Iran continued restricting energy shipping along the Strait of Hormuz.
The Saudi Defense Ministry said a number of drones had been shot down that were targeting the Shayba oil field in the Empty Quarter on Saturday.
A drone attacked the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday causing a minor fire, but no one was hurt in the incident.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement” in September, pledging that aggression against one country would be treated as an attack on both.
Separately, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, the Saudi interior minister, received a call from his Pakistani counterpart Raza Naqvi, who condemned the blatant attacks targeting the Kingdom and affirmed his country’s solidarity in confronting any threats to the Kingdom’s security and stability, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.
