Solaiman Al-Yahya, director general of Saudi Arabia’s passports department (Jawazat), has confirmed that the expat amnesty will not be extended further, reports local newspaper Saudi Gazette.
He confirmed that anyone not taking advantage of the amnesty will be apprehended and punished.
“Four months given to violators of residency and labour laws to leave the Kingdom voluntarily were enough,” he told local language newspaper Al-Madina on Wednesday.
“These are reckless people who have no respect for the law. Therefore, they will be penalised,” he said.
“The amnesty was a golden opportunity for the violators to leave voluntarily and be able to come to the Kingdom any time legally.”
Leave and return
The 90-day amnesty was launched in March and extended by one month, formally ending on 24 July. The intention is to make Saudi Arabia a nation free of violators, the government said.
Undocumented expats were not fingerprinted, which will allow them to return to Saudi Arabia in future. All undocumented expats had to attend reception centres across the country to complete exit checks before leaving.
Al-Yahya said that more than 600,000 people left the Kingdom during the four-month period, although early estimates put the number of undocumented expats at around one million.
Of those that left, more than 15,000 have returned with new work visas.
Al-Yahya warned that anyone who had completed the exit checks but failed to leave the country would also be fined and deported.
The vast majority of undocumented expats are from south-east Asia and Africa; including Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Ethiopia, and Sudan.
Defiance
The weekend before the amnesty deadline saw a rush of expats trying to put their affairs in order as they prepared to leave Saudi Arabia.
Some had reportedly chosen to stay so long in the country to try and earn extra money from the Haj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
According to the Saudi Gazette, however, some expats remain unconcerned that the amnesty has ended and they are choosing to stay.
One man from Egypt told the paper that he had heard of the campaign and the amnesty but “I am not scared”.
Another man from Ethiopia admitted that he has been deported from the Kingdom several times but has always been able to return. “I will be staying until I am caught and deported”.
