File photo of a passport. PHOTO: FILE
Saudi Arabia decided to grant legal status to 0.8 million Pakistanis living in the kingdom.
These Pakistanis were living in Saudi Arabia as illegal citizens and were due to be evicted on November 3. However, in an interview with Arab News, Pakistani ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Naeem Khan said that they have been granted legal status, Radio Pakistan reported.
Khan urged Pakistani workers to contact the consulate general in Jeddah for attaining legal status and jobs.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia had told foreign workers – about a third of its 27 million population – to make sure their visas were in order before a planned crackdown in November, or face possible deportation.
Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, Ethiopia, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines all have large numbers of citizens working in Saudi Arabia and all rely heavily on their remittances.
Till the end of June, reports indicated the presence of at least 50, 000 illegal immigrants from Pakistan working in Saudi Arabia.
Remittances sent home by overseas Pakistanis touched $12.8 billion in 11 months (July-May 2012-13) of the current fiscal year with the hope that the figure will cross $15 billion by year-end.
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@LuvShock!:
Every Muslim is a Slave but the Slave of ALLAH and not of Saudi Arabia or of Arabs..
@Muhammad Ahsan KHAN: You may be a slave too, look again! Saudi kingdom is the only logical brothers we have. Dont be jealous, you guys are twice as many there. @LaLakiMKaa: What do you mean? Are all poeple working hard there are terrorist? Terrorist are hiding and not working at all for the living. @The Only Normal Person Here: It is surprising!
@Indra: Thanks for always looking at the glass as half empty. How much you got paid by your masters for writing this comment?
@Ammar: Sorry, Saudis are not your Brothers but your Masters!
Yesterday, they were illegal slaves, today they are legal slaves. Do these workers have Pakistani passports in their possession to leave the Holy Land without exit visa (permission)??
Illegal Citizens? Since when a citizen of any country is illegal.
Saudi's..now wait the terrorist will demand permanent citizenship.......
@Indra: And what about 1.6 million fellowmen from indraland working in Saudi... shouldn't they return to where their religion originated...or they continue to be parasites in the GCC region
God knows what shareefs have promised in return :-/
the article should have supplemented the news as to how many are denied the legal status ( correction of their documents)
Good man this Muhammad Naeem Khan! Thank you Your Excellency, you did a great job and Pakistan must be proud of this great service to its people. Bless your heart!
This is just the right thing any of us ought to be doing, especially those who we hire to look after the interests of Pakistani people. Let's hope that others in Ambassador Mohammad Naeem Khan's shoes are just as impressed by his great achievement and try to serve our people as ably as this.