Clampdown on illegal workers felt in several Saudi areas

818 illegal immigrants including two women, were arrested in Riyadh on Tuesday.

RIYADH: Stores in a usually bustling district of the Saudi capital were closed, construction work slowed at one nearby site and bakeries around the country shuttered Tuesday, amid a clampdown on illegal workers.

On Monday, authorities began arresting people overstayers who had failed to take advantage of a months-long grace period to leave or legalise their status, and detentions were continuing on Tuesday.

Residents in Riyadh said stores were closed in the popular Al-Batha commercial hub, a cheap market that employs low-paid Asian vendors.

At the same time, residents said work had slowed at a construction site in Thumamama, north of Riyadh.

And Fahd Al-Salman, chairman of the National Committee for Bakeries at the Council of Saudi Chambers, told the Arab News daily that the labour shortage had led to the closure of many bakeries in the kingdom.

Meanwhile, private schools that had closed on Monday re-opened following reassurances that expatriate teachers working illegally could remain until the end of the first semester in December, residents said.

Nearly 4,000 people have so far been arrested in Jeddah alone, the kingdom's commercial capital, said local police spokesman Lieutenant Nawaf al-Bouq.

In the capital Riyadh, 818 illegal immigrants, including two women, were arrested on Tuesday, the police spokesman there General Nasser al-Qahtani told AFP.

Hundreds of expats have also been arrested in other areas across the kingdom, according to local media.

Nearly a million Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis, among others, took advantage of the amnesty announced on April 3 and then extended for four months, and have left the country.

Another roughly four million have legalised their situation by finding employers to sponsor them, a must to reside in most Gulf monarchies.

On Monday, illegal Indonesian workers staged a protest in the port city to protest their consulate's slow pace in handling administrative procedures needed to organise their departure, local press reported.

In the past, foreigners desperate to work in the country were willing to pay for sponsorship, and sponsoring expatriates became a lucrative business for some Saudis.

But under the new rules, workers may be employed only by their own sponsors, banning the practise of working independently or for non-sponsors.