In a major roundup, Riyadh police have arrested 282 expatriates who were living illegally in the capital’s suburbs.

Operations covered remote farms, villages and courtyards in the outskirts of Riyadh. Police conducted operations for six consecutive days with aerial surveillance.

“Individuals who were arrested include expats who have been residing illegally in the Kingdom,” said Col. Fawaz Al-Maiman, Riyadh police spokesman. They include 134 Ethiopians, 76 Yemenis, 21 Indians, 21 Pakistanis, four Bangladeshis and 17 Sudanese, while other illegals were from Somalia and Syria and some new recruits.

According to Al-Maiman, this was a field operation, where police had cordoned off agricultural fields with the help of security authorities to apprehend illegals.

He said the operations were carried out to catch out labor law violators.

The government had previously given an amnesty to all illegal workers to take corrective steps to legalize their residency status in the Kingdom.

The Labor Ministry warned illegal workers who overstay the amnesty period that they would be subject to a penalty of SR100,000 and a two-year jail term.

At the time, expatriates without legal documentation who had been stuck here for years had benefited from the amnesty.