The number of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia has dropped, according to the General Directorate of Statistics and the General Organization for Social Insurance.
According to the international group Pak Sahafat news agency, quoting the new Gulf, the number of migrant workers in the Saudi private and public sectors fell 8.52 percent as 571,333 foreign workers left the labor market from the second quarter of 2021 to the same quarter last year.
Their number reached 6,135,126 at the end of June, compared to 6,706,459 at the end of June 2020.
Al-Watan’s analysis of Saudi Arabia, based on data from the General Directorate of Statistics and the General Organization of Social Insurance, showed that the number of Saudi and non-Saudi subscribers in the social insurance system has decreased. According to this data, the decrease in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter last year was 5.46 percent, where the total number of subscribers at the end of the second quarter of this year reached 8 million 199 thousand 723 people, while at the end of last year, this number had reached 8 million 674 thousand 105 people.
According to official figures, more than 1.5 million migrant workers have left Saudi Arabia in the past two years, and this has increased due to the spread of the coronavirus.
Due to rising prices and austerity, which has affected migrants’ finances, the Corona virus has halted economic activity, laid off tens of thousands of foreign workers and left other workers living in miserable conditions.
Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia face many challenges. The global spread of a virus called corona, falling oil prices and the Saudi government’s austerity programs are among the factors contributing to the crisis in the country’s workers.
The Immigrant Situation Assessment Index in countries shows that migrant workers in Saudi Arabia are in a precarious situation and do not enjoy their basic rights. Workers working in the Gulf countries are more likely to migrate to Arab countries than in Southeast Asia in order to earn more money. Saudi Arabia ranks 49th in the world according to the Immigrant Sustainability Index.
Al-Saud officials have deliberately imposed a series of systematic restrictions on foreign workers in Saudi Arabia in recent months.