By P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR | ARAB NEWS

Published: Oct 20, 2011 22:51 Updated: Oct 20, 2011 22:51

JEDDAH: Nearly three million expatriate workers will have to leave the Kingdom in the next few years as the Labor Ministry has put a 20 percent ceiling on the country’s guest workers.

The ceiling has been set to help find jobs for Saudis and protect the country’s demographic structure.

“The maximum number of long-term expatriate workers in the Kingdom should not exceed 20 percent of the Saudi population,” Al-Eqtisadiah business daily reported Thursday, quoting the Labor Ministry.

The ministry said the long-term plan to cut the number of expatriate workers was aimed at protecting the Kingdom’s demographic structure. Currently, the number of expatriates (8.42 million) accounts for 31 percent of the Saudi population of 18.7 million.

“According to the new plan, about 2.9 million expatriate workers would have to leave the Kingdom,” the paper said. The ministry’s statement came after a meeting of GCC labor ministers decided to step up their campaign to replace expatriates with qualified GCC nationals.

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NOTE BY EDITOR: There is surely no harm to teach the Saudi nationals to do all kind of jobs, however, such arbitrary decisions could create economic chaos.