Following the recent announcement of Saudi Arabia to grant amnesty to Nepali migrants working in the country illegally, 13,000 Nepalis have submitted applications to the Nepali embassy in Riyadh for exit permit as of Saturday, embassy officials have said.

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the embassy to facilitate its citizens working there illegally either to correct their legal status or leave the country without facing punishment. The amnesty plan came into force on May 10 and will last till July 3.

“Thirteen thousand illegal Nepali workers have submitted their applications for exit permits so far,” said Ambassador Udayaraj Pandey.

Seventy thousand Nepalis are estimated to be working in Saudi Arabia illegally. The Saudi Arabia n government provided passports of 30,000 of the illegal workers to the embassy, officials said.

The embassy said that preparations are under way to hand over the passports to their rightful owners by putting information on the matter on its website.

It added that it has deployed people to reach out to other illegal Nepali workers outside of Riyadh.

They are finding it challenging to integrate all the illegal Nepali workers in the scheme, said Dharma KC, former chairman of the Non-Resident Nepali Association, who is helping the embassy in the process at Dammam. “Many illegal workers are working in remote areas of Saudi Arabia so it is difficult to bring them all in the embassy’s contact,” he said.

Published on: 19 May 2013 | The Kathmandu Post