Yemeni labors in Saudi Arabia
On March 29th, Saudi Government reassured Yemeni labor in its institutions that the military operation dubbed Decisive Storm against the Houthis in Yemen will not affect their presence in Saudi Arabia.
The Ministry of Labor in Saudi said that the Decisive Storm operations will not affect Yemeni workers in Saudi Arabia, and the campaigns carried out by the Ministry in cooperation with the Passports Department target illegal labor of all nationalities.
A source said that the Ministry of Labor is keen on the stability of employment of various nationalities, especially Yemeni labor, which has great relationships with Saudi Arabia. “Any instructions regarding employment will be through the Interior Ministry, but so far nothing has been issued and the situation is as it was before the start of military operations,” the source confirmed.
For his part, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Labor Taisser al-Mefarej said that Yemeni labor will not be compromised and will not encounter any problems. “Workers who have a formal contract will be safe, but in general for any labor with any irregularities or attempts to destabilize security, the concerned authorities will deal with them. This is for all nationalities and not for a particular nationality,” al-Mefarej added.
Analysts ruled out the deportation of Yemeni workers such as in 1990, stressing that what happened 25 years ago was for organizational reasons. Economic analyst Hussein al-Shammari stressed that what happened in 1990 will not be repeated because what happened at that time was due to the presence of large Yemeni labor without regular visas, but now employment is regular and legal.
According to World Bank statistics issued in 2013, Yemeni workers in Saudi Arabia are fourth in number after Indian, Egyptian and Pakistani.
The Yemeni community in Saudi Arabia is estimated to be more than 890,000 workers, and a number of Yemeni families depend on remittances from their sons working in Saudi Arabia.
The annual remittances are estimated to be about 4 billion Saudi riyals, or 1 billion dollars.
