Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — Officials and experts have said expatriate residents will not respect the country's laws and regulations as long as citizens do not abide by them. The recently concluded status correction campaign has revealed that large numbers of expatriates were violating the country's residency and labor regulations, affecting the social stability and security. Speaking to Al-Riyadh newspaper, Shoura Council member Hamdah Al-Enezi said although there are many expatriates who are violating the law, the majority abide by the law. She believes expatriates who break the law only do so because of a lack of strict enforcement, which has contributed to the proliferation of illegal residents in the country. She added that the recent correction campaign is a clear proof of a lack of strict law enforcement, which resulted in leniency in granting work visas and allowing expatriates to work as they pleased. "Citizens have also contributed to expatriates' disrespect of the law. There are many negative practices common among expatriate workers because of citizens' lack of discipline and disrespect for the law," she added. Al-Enezi hopes the correction campaign will be followed by an awareness campaign and strict directives that expatriates should work for their sponsors and in the profession listed on their iqamas. “Laws and procedures should be made clear to the public, in addition to the penalties for breaking the law, and the correction campaign should now point to deficiencies in laws and law enforcement.” She also believes that the problem lies with recruiting workers from third world countries who are ill-equipped to work in the Saudi market. "Such workers are not qualified nor trained for the Saudi market as they come from very simple living conditions, ideas and backgrounds," she added while recommending certain conditions be met before foreigners are recruited to work in the Kingdom, such as determining whether or not they are suitable for the job they were hired for. Khalid Al-Fakhry, a legal consultant and member of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), said when there are laws and procedures that are not strictly enforced, violations will occur. He added that expatriates come to the country for financial reasons and they freely jump from one job to another in the absence of controls and punishments. He believes that since violations are linked to a lack of clear penalties, this leads expatriates to disregard them. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should conduct orientation sessions for expatriates before they arrive in the country to educate them on the laws and penalties for violations," he said.
