The National Committee for tackling the problem of illegal labour in the Kingdom yesterday held its third meeting at the premises of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority where officials discussed efforts by the Kingdom’s various authorities to clamp down on illegal workers through various raids and inspection campaigns.

During the meeting, which was led by Chief Executive of the LMRA Ali Ahmed Radhi, officials were briefed on the work of inspection teams formed in collaboration between the LMRA, the Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

Over past inspections, the team was able to catch 2,528 foreign labourers who were working without a permit. Many of the labourers had expired work visas, while others were on cancelled visas. 442 of them had been reported as absconding workers.

Legal action is being taken against the illegal workers and they are being transferred to the public prosecution. 23 business owners were also given a warning for hiring a total of 879 foreign workers without the necessary permits.
During yesterday’s meeting, the team stated that it also requested the cooperation of 73 bodies, 18 of which are ministries, in order to tackle this situation.

The inspection teams recently conducted 57 inspection campaigns in various governorates in which they caught 378 illegal foreign workers. 107 of these workers have already been repatriated.

The teams are to step up the number of inspections carried out over the second half of this year and will carry out an average of 20 inspections per month in all governorates.

During yesterday’s meeting, the head of the committee emphasized the importance of the role of media in ensuring the success of this national campaign and called upon all business owners to commit to LMRA’s regulations.