MUSCAT, Oct 22 - In a combined crackdown on violators of labour and residency laws, 396 people were arrested in Muscat on Sunday.
According to Royal Oman Police (ROP), all the arrested, including a woman and 31 infiltrators, were picked from their place of residences in the Ruwi area.
“The arrests were made in a joint operation carried out by sleuths from the ROP, Ministry of Manpower and officials from the Muscat Municipality”, said Brig Abdullah Mohammed al Sayari, police chief of Muscat Governorate.
All the violators are from different Asian countries, he said.
Most of them were construction workers, people working at shops in Ruwi and adjoining areas.
With these arrests, the number of people detained so far this month crossed more than 900.
Earlier in the month, 547 illegal workers, including 440 commercial workers, 52 farm labourers and 55 housemaids were arrested from different areas of the country.
In September, officials in Buraimi apprehended 107 workers for violating provisions of the Labour Law, of whom 98 workers were found to be working without commercial permits.
At the same time, statistics from the ministry show that 18,854 expatriate workers were caught during raids in 2016.
In 2015, around 19,000 expatriate workers were caught in raids meant to nab labour law violators. This year, once the data for the missing weeks is added, the number is expected to be the same, or even more.
Manpower experts calculate that an average 400 people are rounded up from various parts of the country for violation of labour laws.
“There are no official statistics on how many illegal workers are staying in the country.
“From the large number of people being arrested every month it should be estimated that the figure will run into thousands”, said Tareq al Yakubi in Ruwi.
Lack of respect and also knowledge about labour laws on the part of the workers coupled with heavy debt they have back in their home countries have been leading to such a situations, he added.
SAMUEL KUTTY
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