The expatriate laborers in Saudi Arabia, those who are yet to legalize, have to be legalized by July 3 otherwise punitive actions have to be taken against them.The special opportunity declared by Saudi Arabia King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz will end on July 3.
Demanding extension of the time, Saudi economists and businessmen said three months are not enough for about 2000,000 expatriates to be legalized in the country.
According to the statistics from the economist and former Sura Council member Ihsan Buhulaiga, around 500,000 workers had been legalized in last one and half months.
There are still 15 lakh more expatriate laborers waiting to be legalized within the date.
Ihsan told local media that foreign high commissions, Saudi chambers of commerce, labour office and home ministry are trying to legalize the laborers but this is not an easy task.
He said, “Long queues are seen in front of the offices of chambers of commerce, passport departments, high commissions and labour office. This hints us about the extension of time.”
Demanding another two months Eram Engineers’ Chairman & Managing Director Siddeek Ahmed said, “Even the extended two months may not be enough to legalize the large number of labourers.”
Sources said ambassadors of various countries requested the Saudi government to extend the time for legalization.
Saudi labor minister Adel Fakieh said at a Geneva convention that through the process of ‘Saudization Program’ called ‘Nitaqat’ about 615,000 workers had been able to work. Over 17,000 workers are on the process.
He added: “I have ordered the concerned authorities to restrain the changing of professions by workers of companies of red category.”
On the other hand, wishing anonymity, a responsible source from the Bangladesh Embassy to Saudi Arabia told banglanews that they did not know the exact number of the legalized workers.
According to the source, around 120,000 workers collected passports from the embassy.
A large number of laborers would remain illegal if the Saudi government does not extend the time, the source added. (Source: Banglanews2.com)
