The Saudi Interior Ministry launched a 90-day amnesty campaign starting on 29 March. It was due to end on 25 June but was extended by 30 days until 24 July.
Expat affairs departments across the Kingdom witnessed huge crowds on Sunday, reports local newspaper Saudi Gazette.
The amnesty is intended to make the Kingdom ‘violator free’, the government said.
Many expats had reportedly chosen to stay so late in the country to earn extra money from the Haj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
Early estimates put the number of labour and residence violators at around one million. But with one week to go, just over half that number had left the Kingdom.
As this is not the first such amnesty offered by the Saudi Government, some had expected the amnesty to be extended again, the Indonesian vice consul for information, social and cultural affairs told the Saudi Gazette.
The vast majority of undocumented expats are from south-east Asia and Africa; including Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Ethiopia, and Sudan.
