Editorial: Nov. 3 deadline: Many questions beg answers There are now just three days left to complete the regularization of the status of illegal workers in the Kingdom. There is every sign that when this final grace period comes to an end, a very significant number of expatriates is going to be trapped in a system which forbids them to be here, but has also not given them the necessary documents to exit the country. What on earth has gone wrong? A tremendous amount of money, training and effort was put into the systems that the authorities have been using. Research had indicated the need to process an astonishing number of foreign workers, whose presence in the Kingdom was unauthorized. There is no escaping the reality that the primary blame lies with the illegal workers themselves. Some of them may have been exploited and trapped in a system from which they could not escape. However, the majority was perfectly aware that, whether they were Haj or Umrah overstayers, had crossed into the Kingdom illegally or had quit or been fired by their original sponsors. They had no right to be in the Kingdom, because they did not possess the correct papers. When the clampdown was first announced, there was unfortunately a widespread assumption that this initiative would be, like past campaigns, strong on rhetoric but short on delivery. There appears to have been a widespread belief that there would be a limited but high-profile roundup and deportation of illegals. Then the fuss would die down and life for illegals would go on as usual. When the amnesty and chance to regularize their status was announced this April, there were three months for people to act. Despite all the preparations, it quickly became obvious that authorities had underestimated, not simply the numbers of illegals that would need to be processed, but also the speed with which they could be handled. Hence the very wise and very necessary extension of the amnesty until Nov. 3 was announced by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. It is arguable that this extension may however have been counterproductive, in that it caused some illegals to imagine that there would be further extensions of the grace period and that D-Day would never really come. Yet whatever the shortsighted or dilatory behavior of expats regularizing their status, it is also clear that systems that were supposed to bring this about, have failed to do the job. It is not just shortcomings in the procedures that were designed to gather the details of more than 1.5 million illegal workers. The resources that were deployed, in terms of personnel and the number of counters and fingerprint and biometric data gathering facilities, have been totally inadequate. And there is evidence that officials have demonstrated little sense of urgency or dedication to what is one of the most important programs the Kingdom has undertaken in recent years. It now seems clear, for instance, that the scheme to have different days set aside for the processing of different nationalities was a mistake. On the face of it, a good idea, the system failed because it proved inflexible. When an allotted day was finished, any nationals unprocessed on “their” day, were left in limbo. No one it seems had given any thought to what would happen to these unfortunate people. Indeed it is currently unclear what will be the fate of the large numbers of expats who, it is now certain, will miss the Nov. 3 cut. What is known is that 1,200 new workplace inspectors have just graduated and been given 200 new vehicles and equipment, ready for the nationwide dragnet. But what will become of the illegals that they pick up? Where are they to be detained? Who will look after them and most importantly, who will pay for their return to their own country? What is so astonishing about this failure to make the grace period work successfully for the Kingdom and for expatriates who, whether we like it or not, play an important part in our economic life, is that Saudi Arabia demonstrates, time and again, that it is capable of one of the world’s most remarkable feats of organization. This year’s Haj was generally agreed to have been the most successful ever, with more than 1.5 million pilgrims being welcomed to the holy sites. It is such a pity that the Ministries of Interior and Labor did not consult their colleagues in the Haj Ministry to see how the massive operation they planned with illegal workers could best be done.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 22:29:06 +0000