After having given 6 months to the 8 million migrant workers to legalize their situation, the Arab Kingdom has decided to evict all those who did not have time to fulfill the administrative requirements, involving 4 million people, mainly Black Africans, Indians and Yemenites.
In a week, several hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have left the country. Riots have broken out in the poor suburb of Riyadh, killing at least 2 and leaving 68 seriously injured persons. The police arrested 561 foreigners while Saudi’s armed with baseball bats were lynching Ethiopian nationals. Sunday morning, hundreds of migrant workers chose to surrender to the police rather than risk being killed.
In addition to a heavy fine, the illegal workers are likely to spend 2 years in prison.
To ease the tension, the Labour Minister announced that his administration would accept late files, but it is impossible for most of these migrants to gather the needed documents.
The Saudi economy is completely paralyzed by this massive expulsion. However, the government estimates that eventually this measure will free up jobs for Saudis, even though it is highly improbable that the subjects of King Abdallah will accept to collect garbage or to build roads.
Worried for their security, the Ethiopian Government has announced it’s intention of facilitating the repatriation of 200, 000 domestic workers.
Yemen, with an already unstable situation, will not be able to assimilate the expected 400,000 people, as reported by the United Nations.
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