SAUDI ARABIA

758,570 visa violators took advantage of amnesty: Interior Ministry

November 16, 2017

Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH – More than 758,570 visa violators from 140 nationalities have taken advantage of the general amnesty announced by Saudi Arabia about eight months ago, according to Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, security spokesman for the Interior Ministry.
The number includes residency and labor law violators, Haj and Umrah visa overstayers and people who crossed into the Kingdom breaching border security, he said.
Addressing a press conference in Riyadh on Thursday, Al-Turki said about 37 percent of the violators left the Kingdom directly through various exit points, including airports, seaports and land exits. The majority of them had come to the Kingdom on Haj, Umrah, visit or transit visas.
Approximately 60 percent of the visa violators left Saudi Arabia after completing departure procedures at the deportation departments, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted Maj. Gen. Al-Turki as saying.
Al-Turki said these violators included people who absconded from work, people who did not have their resident permits renewed for many years and those who did not hold any identification papers. They also included infiltrators who crossed into the Kingdom illegally.
Al-Turki said the remaining 3 percent completed departure procedures and obtained final exit visas but they did not leave the country yet according to official records.
He expressed hope that these people would be able to leave the Kingdom before the expiry of their final exit visas.
The press conference was held at the Security Forces Officers’ Club in Riyadh Thursday under the title “Campaign for nation without a violator”. Aside from Col. Al-Turki, the participants included representative of Public Security Col. Sami Al-Shuwairikh, Official Spokesman of the Ministry of Labor and Social Development Khaled Aba Al-Khail, and the representative of the Directorate General of Prisons Maj. Ayidh Al-Harthi, among others.
Maj. Gen. Al-Turki further said that Egyptians still have six months remaining in the grace period, as agreed on by the authorities concerned. This does not necessitate that they take the initiative to depart.
He added: “As to the other Egyptian violators, who ought to leave voluntarily so as to benefit from the amnesty and avoid the consequences of taking their fingerprints as deportees plus payment of fees and fines for those who have not departed voluntarily and have been arrested by the authorities concerned with carrying out the field campaign, the regulatory measures will be implemented on them.”
Al-Turki said violators who took advantage of the grace period were of 140 nationalities. The majority (20 percent) were Pakistanis, 12 percent Egyptians, 10 percent Ethiopians, 10 percent Indians, 8 percent Moroccans, 7 percent Bangladeshis, 6 percent Sudanese, 6 percent Yemenis, 4 percent Turks, 4 percent Algerians; and 2 percent Indonesians, Filipinos and Iraqis.
He added that violators of Turkish, Moroccan, Algerian and Egyptian nationalities have voluntarily left the Kingdom via the land, sea and airports. Only a few still need to complete procedures at the Expatriates Department before departure.

November 16, 2017
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