Despite the government's Saudiisation efforts, foreign workers keep pouring into the kingdom, English daily Arab News reported yesterday.

"Every day I bring 20 to 25 new arrivals from the airport. I know they are newcomers from the conversation they have with the people who welcome them," said Mohammed Razak, a limousine driver.

He said his experience and that of colleagues was that job-seekers keep coming on free visas, although such visas have been declared illegal.

New arrivals from south and Southeast Asia include both professionals and unskilled workers. They enter the kingdom on a work or other category visa and then change their job description to get a job reserved for Saudis. All they have to do is pay SR1,000 at the Labour Office.

Only 500,000 Saudis are officially said to be working in the private sector, which is where the majority of the kingdom's six million expatriates work.

This puts the level of Saudiisation of the workforce in the private sector at eight per cent, far below the 30 per cent target set by the government.

According to Hisham Ferhat, a sales executive, companies have adopted a new ruse to artificially boost the level of Saudiisation of their work force.

"They sign a contract with a Saudi firm, which agrees to act as the expatriate employee's sponsor. The actual employer pays the Saudi firm a fixed amount. This reduces the official foreign workforce of his company and pushes up the level of Saudiisation to the required level," Hisham said.

An executive said despite the ban recruitment of unskilled manpower continues. He attributed this to influence peddling or "wasta".

The Manpower Council's Secretary-General Abdul Wahed Al Humaid has estimated that some 20,000 jobs would be created under the plan to Saudiise 25 sectors.