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Sudan Tribune

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Sudanese return from Saudi Arabia after failing to regularise their status

November 30, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The head of Sudan’s diplomatic mission in Riyadh Khaled Fath Al-Rahman has announced the return of 11, 678 Sudanese nationals from the kingdom of Saudi Arabia following its government decision to deport all foreign national who fail to regularise their status.

He told the official news agency SUNA on Saturday that all Sudanese irregular migrants voluntarily returned home, pointing that the decision of the Saudi government included all foreign nationals.

The Saudi government started to enforce a long-disregarded rule that expatriates can work only for their sponsor. The aim is to close a loophole allowing companies to get around strict new quotas that determine how many Saudis they employ.

Fath Al-Rahman praised efforts of the mission to help Sudanese expats adjust their situations and added that representatives from the embassy are following up the conditions of the migrants, pointing that this move wouldn’t affect relations between the two countries.

He said that a report issued by the Saudi interior ministry revealed that 20, 000 out of 42,000 foreign nationals who have been detained following the deadline for adjusting situation were deported.

Since Saudi Arabia began the crackdown against irregular migrants on 4 November thousands of foreign nationals are said to have been arrested.

The ambassador further disclosed that 43 Sudanese were detained in the Eastern Area while 26 others were detained in Riyadh and have been released by the authorities to allow them regularise their situations.

The Sudanese general consular in Jeddah, Khaled Al-Tiris, for his part, said that the consulate managed to deport 6.000 Sudanese expats voluntarily before the deadline.

He stressed that the consulate is following up on the procedures of several Sudanese workers who will be deported, saying that 250 Sudanese in the Western Area managed to adjust their situations.

Al-Tiris described Sudanese-Saudi relations as eternal and would not be affected by the recent decision to adjust situation of the foreign nationals in the kingdom.

Sudanese workers abroad especially in the Arab Gulf countries are one of the main sources of hard currency through their remittances they send to their families.

Since the secession of oil-rich south in July 2011, Sudan’s reserves of hard currency started to dry up thus making the local currency fall to its lowest level to record last month.

(ST)

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