Some 370,200 illegal foreign workers have been deported during the last five months in Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of the Interior said.
A further 18,413 illegal foreign workers are awaiting deportation in shelters allocated by the state, the ministry said in a statement.
“This is the first time that the number of deportees exceeds the number of workers intercepted by security forces while being smuggled in to the Kingdom,” the General Directorate of Passports spokesperson Colonel Ahmed Lhaidan told the Riyadh newspaper.