The May 26 file photo of Arab News shows Bangladeshi workers queue up at the Bangladesh mission in Jeddah to get their documents updated after the Saudi government offered the ‘get legalised or go home’ amnesty to foreign workers.
Saudi Arabia has extended by four months the amnesty period for the irregular foreign workers to legalise their status.
The decision by King Abdullah, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, comes as a great relief to the hundreds of thousands of migrants, including estimated 3 lakh Bangladeshis who have yet to get their status regularised.
Saudi interior ministry statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday said the original three-month grace period, which ends on July 4, will be extended to the end of the current Hijra year 1434, equivalent to November 4 this year, reports Arab News.
Once the new deadline expires, inspections by appropriate agencies such as the ministries of labor and interior, will resume inspections in various regions of the Kingdom and all penalties will apply on violators, the statement said.
With this new deadline, the two ministries urged all undocumented expatriates who have yet to register to come forward and have their status corrected.
Source: The Daily Star
