Manama: Non-Saudi mothers of Saudi children will be given permanent residence in Saudi Arabia without the need of a sponsor, the cabinet has said.

They will also be given the rights accorded to Saudi nationals in public and university education and in health services.

The decision announced by Abdul Aziz Khoja, the culture and information minister, following the weekly cabinet session on Monday, marks a breakthrough for non-Saudi women married to Saudi men who, despite their marriage and their Saudi children, continued to be treated as “full foreigners” who needed a sponsor to be able to live in Saudi Arabia and could not benefit from any privilege enjoyed by Saudi women.

Under the sponsorship system adopted by several countries in the Gulf, foreigners cannot live in the country or take up a job or switch jobs without the approval of their sponsor.

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, the recommendations to change the status of the foreign mothers of Saudi children had been submitted by the foreign minister Prince Saud Al Faisal based on “the lack of housing and living guarantees for Saudi children living abroad and their non-Saudi mothers upon returning to the kingdom.”

The decision is expected to encourage non-Saudi women married with Saudis to stay in the kingdom with their children.

“The state will pay the residence fees of the non-Saudi mothers,” the information minister said. “These mothers have the right to take up jobs in the private sector and will be considered part of Saudization process,” he said in reference to the scheme launched by the state to boost the number of Saudis employed by private companies.

The minister said that the cabinet cancelled a paragraph in a decision taken by the Saudi government more than 40 years ago and related to non-Saudi widows with Saudi children that stipulated that “they must have sponsors according to residence regulations.”

The cabinet also cancelled another paragraph of the same decision that stipulated that the "sponsor must pay for the non-Saudi mother’s living expenses if she is unable to find a job for legal considerations.”