Dubai: The Saudi Ministry of Interior (MoI) has announced that employers hiring illegal expats will face severe penalties. Businesses found guilty of employing expatriates in violation of regulations, enabling their employees to work for others, or outsourcing their employees to other businesses will be fined SR 100,000.
According to a statement released on the Ministry’s Twitter account, these penalties also include imprisonment for the responsible manager for up to a year, and a recruitment ban for up to five years. If the manager is an expatriate, they may also face deportation.
The ministry has urged the public to support the security authorities’ efforts to decrease violations of residency, work and border security regulations. The public can do this by refraining from employing, sheltering, transporting, or hiding violators.
To report such violations, individuals in the regions of Mecca, Riyadh and Sharqiya can call (911), while those in the rest of the Kingdom can dial (999).
The ministry has emphasised the importance of reporting these violations to ensure adherence to the law.
During a week-long campaign, 13,308 individuals violating residency, labour laws and border security regulations were apprehended across various regions of Saudi Arabia.
The ministry said that these arrests were the result of joint field operations conducted by different security force units throughout the Kingdom from July 20 to 26.
An additional 572 individuals were detained while attempting to cross the kingdom’s border; of these, 62 per cent were Yemeni, 37 per cent were Ethiopian, and 1 per cent belonged to other nationalities. In addition, 58 individuals were intercepted while trying to exit Saudi Arabia illegally.
Nine individuals associated with transporting and sheltering those in violation of residency and work regulations were also apprehended.
Currently, around 36,953 offenders, comprising 30,660 men and 6,293 women are undergoing procedural actions for their respective regulation violations.
