Saudi issued 0.5m work visas to Yemenis over 5 years, official says

Saudi Arabia has issued 500,000 work visas and 350,000 family visit visas to Yemenis since mid-2018, the Saudi Ambassador in Sanaa, Muhammad Saeed Al-Jaber, said yesterday.

In a statement, Al-Jaber said the visas were issued to Yemenis “from all governorates in the country without exception.”

“The Saudi move comes within the kingdom’s keenness to support the Yemeni people,” Al-Jaber said on Twitter.

While there are no official statistics on the number of Yemeni expatriates in the kingdom, the Sana’a Centre for Studies has reported that the number is estimated to be around two million.

Yemen has been mired in a bloody war between the forces loyal to the internationally-backed government, supported by an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis, supported by Iran, who control several provinces; including the capital Sanaa.

Talks have been held in recent weeks between Saudi and the Houthis to bring an end to the war.

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