Earlier this week, Saudi authorities announced that a SR100,000 ($26,700) fine and up to 2 years in prison will be imposed on people who host or help illegal expats in the country, Arab News reported.
The announcement was made by the spokesman for the Madinah region police, Maj. Hussain Al-Qahtani on Monday, and is part of the Saudi government's ongoing “Nation without Violators” campaign.
The latest news comes a week after the country's Ministry of Labor and Social Development reported the arrest of 119,850 expats for various violations.
Earlier this year and under the same campaign, Saudi authorities announced they would offer a SR 50,000 ($13,332) reward to anyone who reports illegal expats to police.
"A Nation Without Violators"
In recent weeks, expats in Saudi Arabia "have been advised to carry their resident identification and other relevant documents during police inspections."
This comes months after illegal immigrants were given a 3 month grace period to regularize their status or leave the country under “A Nation Without Violators” campaign, which took effect on March 29.
At the time of its launch, Major General Mansour al-Turki, security spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, spoke of the campaign during a press conference, saying:
"The campaign is aimed at all expatriates who do not hold valid iqamas (residency permits) or identification papers in the kingdom and have the residency or labor regulation or both, or those who have entered the Kingdom on Hajj or Umrah visa or transit and have not taken the initiative to depart after the expiry of their visas."
Al-Turki also explained that those who leave the country under the amnesty campaign will not be blacklisted and will be allowed to come back to the kingdom should they obtain proper work permits/visas later on.