Saudi claims success of mass immigrant registration scheme

The Saudi government is claiming the the implementation of its 'Nitaqat' scheme over the last six months has been a success with 1.4m Indian workers regularising their immigration position.

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Foreigners without the right legal documents were given until 3 November to sort it or to leave the country. The embassy in New Delhi has just issued a statement saying: 'As far as the Indian community in the Kingdom is concerned, it is the community that has benefited the most from the grace period. According to available data, more than 1.4 million Indians regularized their status during the grace period. Moreover, during the six months of the grace period the size of the Indian community in the Kingdom has gone up to nearly 2.8 million.' There had been fears that the system would work unfairly. However, Saudi Arabia is heavily dependant on foreign workers and needed to make the scheme work well for its purposes. Only about 130,000 Indians who lacked the right documents returned home, according to the Indian government.  Source: The Business Standard.

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