Saudi clampdown on illegal workers likely to have little long-term effect


Saudi Arabia’s vast army of expatriate workers has one month left to ensure its paperwork is in order, under an official amnesty that ends on 3 November. Anyone found to be working without the right visa after that date faces the prospect of fines or imprisonment, and the government has said it will to show no leniency. The policy is the latest effort to help reduce the country’s reliance on foreign labour and get more locals into work, a process known as ‘Saudisation’. But while the latest clampdown is likely to have a short-term economic impact, history suggests it won’t make much difference in the longer term.