Mumbai: Saudi Arabia has banned 107 companies from recruiting foreign workers as they failed to comply with a law that requires employing a minimum number of Saudi nationals. The banned companies, with more than 100 employees, do not have even one per cent Saudis in their workforce and hence the ban, a labour ministry release said.

Twelve of the 107 companies facing the ban on recruiting foreign workers had no Saudi employee while eight of them had just one per cent, the statement said.

Saudi law, approved by the cabinet three years ago, requires companies with 20 or more employees to recruit a minimum 30 per cent Saudi workers. It is part of the "Saudisation" intiative taken by the government to gradually replace the rising population of expatriate workers, most of whom are from South and Southeast Asia, and reduce unemployment among Saudi nationals.

Some of the companies, however, defended their position. Sulaiman Al-Misyadi, general manager of Fares Bundugji Establishment, one of the companies facing the ban, said his business is in cleaning and very few Saudis were interested in such jobs.

A large number of Saudis had applied for jobs and were employed as supervisors but most of them left after a short time in search of new careers; the Arab News daily quoted him as saying.
Saudi Arabia will also impose a fine on expatriates in the country if their family members visiting them overstay their visa period.

The immigration department would give a two-month grace period from 3 April to 1 June for expatriates and companies to send their visitors before imposition of the new law.

There are more than seven million foreign workers in the Kingdom, whose family members add up to a total population of 27 million in the country. People who come for Haj and Umrah especially stay after the expiry of their visa, which is a main problem for the security agencies in the country.

The new law, in addition to the existing Umrah regulations, will reduce the number of those who overstay in the country, a media report said.