CAIRO: A total of 29 Egyptians were deported from Saudi Arabia Tuesday for violating the residency law in the third wave of deportation this month, Youm7 reported.
The deportees arrived on a plane coming from Jeddah and confessed violating residency laws once arriving in the airport. They will be released once their criminal record is proven clear.
In two other waves earlier in October, 32 Egyptians were deported from the Kingdom. On Oct. 15, 19 Egyptians were deported with travel documents issued by the Egyptian consulate in Jeddah, rather than passports, because theirs were withheld by Saudi sponsors.
The Saudi sponsorship system entitles business owners to hold the passports of foreign workers as long as they work for them. But some Egyptian workers stay in the Kingdom despite expired visas in hopes of finding another job.
Saudi Arabia has deported hundreds of Egyptians in recent months over overstaying their visas.
According to a report issued by the Saudi Labor Department in 2014, the number of Egyptians working in the Kingdom was estimated at 968,000 at the end of 2013, representing about 40 percent of the total Arab expatriate workforce in Saudi Arabia.
In 2013, the Saudi authorities deported about 200,000 foreign workers in four months due to illegal residency.