Saudi authorities have detained 17 Bangladeshis during a nationwide raid on undocumented workers that started on Monday.
They had arrested a total of 21 Bangladeshis, but four of them were later released after they were found to have had legal documents, Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Md Shahidul Islam told bdnews24.com.
The Saudi government so far arrested 20,000 undocumented workers, he said. The government started this raid after a grace period of seven months until Nov 3.
According to Reuters news agency, the remittances sent home by expatriates in Saudi Arabia are often vital for their own nations, which include Yemen, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Egypt.
The Saudi government hopes that reducing the number of illegal workers will create opportunities for Saudi job-seekers.
The official Saudi unemployment rate is 12 percent but excludes a large number of citizens who say they are not seeking a job.
However, the majority of the kingdom’s nine million foreigners are unskilled labourers or domestic workers, jobs usually shunned by Saudis, adds Reuters.
Source: Bd news24
