The crackdown on illegal migrants in Saudi Arabia has had a bearing on over 100 skilled workers from Odisha’s Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts who returned from the oil-rich country to avoid being hounded, official sources said today.
Caught in the complexities of visa renewal, the skilled labourers had turned illegal migrants due to expiry of their visa period and were forced to leave that country. The grace period for regularising their status ended on November 4, sources said.
The oil-rich country has undertaken a drive to deport illegal expatriates who had overstayed in Saudi Arabia after expiry of their working visas.
“The administration has received reports of return of migrant workers from Saudi Arabia. The matter is taken up with competent authorities to ascertain the number of workers from Kendrapara still left in Saudi Arabia without valid visa,” said Kendrapara Collector Niranjan Nayak.
“After the announcement to deport illegal expatriates, I left the country with the help of the Indian Embassy at Riyadh.
The local government had offered the foreign workers an amnesty period for those who overstayed. I left Arabia with a temporary visa issued by the Indian Embassy before the period expired,” said Sheikh Abdul Sayeed (29) of Haladia village in Kendrapara district.