Muscat: More than 1,000 illegal expatriates were arrested for working in the new terminal building under construction at Muscat International airport last Wednesday.
Those illegal workers had visas issued for jobs in restaurants, barber shops, tailor shops, as housemaids and camel keepers.
Salim Al Badi, the Director General of Labour Welfare at the Ministry of Manpower, said that employers of those illegal workers should contact the joint inspection team of the manpower ministry and Royal Oman Police to enquire about their employees.
Al Badi stressed that the Ministry of Manpower along with other authorities has intensified its monitoring of illegal workers, to curb such increasing violations of the labour law
Al Badi said that the workers will be fined, deported and face a lifetime ban. For companies, the minimum fine for violating the labour law is 2,000 riyals (Dh19,076) while private employers of illegal workers face a fine of 1,000 riyals.
Moreover, the company that hired illegal workers will be banned for obtaining visas for foreign workers for one year.
Gulf News contacted the violating subcontractor company at Muscat International Airport, but officials declined to comment on the matter.
More than 800 hundred illegal workers were arrested last April while other 650 illegal workers were deported, according to figures from the Ministry of Manpower.
The new $1.8 billion (Dh6.6 billion) terminal building is expected to be completed by 2016 and have a capacity to receive 12 million visitors every year.
