I am writing with regard to the article “Amnesty ends; all-out raid begins” (Nov. 4). Every economy needs workers who work on a daily or hourly wage basis. In our everyday life, we need plumbers, electricians, and manual laborers and even large companies often need skilled or unskilled laborers for some small piece of work that does not justify hiring a permanent employee. I fear that there will be an acute shortage of such workers in Saudi Arabia as this labor force is composed of expat workers most of whom are now illegal as a result of recent laws. Many of these workers have gone underground or have already left the Kingdom. I firmly believe that the government has the right to implement its laws and that everyone should respect these regulations. But instead of the grace/amnesty periods and ongoing raids on illegal workers, I believe that only two changes in the existing laws could have avoided the current panic of expatriates and could have straightened out their legal status easily. The regulations should stipulate that 1) it should be mandatory to pay the salaries/wages of all expatriate workers through employer's bank, and 2) no employer/kafeel can hold anyone if an expatriate worker has a job offer from another employer. Mohiuddin Saleem, Online response II. When my friend's child asked his parents "why can't I go to my friend's house tomorrow?" and "why can't we go out for a walk?”, I was embarrassed because the status of the family is fully legal as they have all the proper documents. However, there is now an atmosphere of fear and of house imprisonment among expatriates. Let us hope that the country will serve its guests kindly as before, and let us serve the country as best we can and work for its development. Muhammed Sajid, Online response
