The Ministry of Interior is planning to conduct intensive security check in coming days to rectify the status of over 1,20,000 expatriates who have identified as living here without proper residency status, local Arabic newspaper Al-Anba reported. The report added that the security campaign will be focussed on areas densely populated by expatriates as well as the farms, livestock pens and industrial areas.

This step will be taken as per the new instructions issued and applied by the Residency Affairs General Department.

The daily also reported that the residency permit of any member of an expatriate family will not be renewed if one of them is proven to have violated the Residency Law until the latter rectifies his status by leaving the country or legalizing his status, indicating this also applies to expatriates who entered the country on visit visa.

The daily cited as an example the case of some expatriate children on Article 22 visa under their mothers while their fathers were proven to have violated the Residency Law, indicating the residency of the children under the mother’s sponsorship will not be renewed until the father rectifies his status.

The daily also added that the same applies to citizens whose domestic workers (Article 20), clarifying that a citizen’s transactions will be blocked if the domestic worker is found to have violated the Residency Law.