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Saudi Arabia arrests over 18,000 in a week in crackdown on residency, labour law violations
A total of 1,762 illegal expats were told to make booking arrangements for their departure, and 7,523 were repatriated, MoI said
- PUBLISHED: Sun 6 Apr 2025, 7:30 PM
Saudi Arabia arrested 18,407 people in a week (between March 27 and April 2) in a crackdown on violators of residency, labour, and border security regulations across the Kingdom.
This was informed by the country's Ministry of Interior in a social media post.
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Among the violations recorded: 12,995 were residency, 3,512 border security, and 1,900 are those of labour laws.
Attempting to cross the border into the Kingdom illegally were 1,260 individuals, of whom 28 per cent were Yemenis, 66 per cent Ethiopians, and six per cent of other nationalities; sixty-seven people were arrested for attempting to leave the Kingdom illegally.
A total of 34,201 expatriates (32,453 men and 1,748 women) are currently undergoing procedures for enforcing regulations.
A total of 27,288 people were instructed to contact their countries’ embassies or consulates to obtain proper travel documentation; 1,762 were told to make booking arrangements for their departure, and 7,523 were repatriated.
The Ministry of Interior has further warned that those facilitating illegal entries into the Kingdom and providing border violators transport, shelter or any other assistance may be penalised with up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to SAR1 million. It also said the vehicles used for transport or houses used for shelter could be seized.
The MoI underlined that such acts are major crimes that warrant arrest.