Oman’s ministry of manpower has announced a temporary ban on visa issuance to private sector establishments in the construction and cleaning work sector. Ban will span for six months.
“The authorisation for the recruitment of non-Omani manpower in private sector establishments engaged in construction and cleaning works shall be suspended for six months. The permit will continue with an outgoing allowance.” the ministry said in a statement issued on Monday.
The new decision would not be applicable to those companies with more than 100 workers.
“The decision does not apply to establishments employing 100 or more workers, establishments operating in the implementation of government projects, enterprises owned by full-time employers registered with the Public Authority for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, and establishments registered in the world category and based in free zones.” Wording of the Article (2) read.
As per records of National Centre of Statistics and Information, of a total of 1,700,000 foreign workers in the Sultanate, 508,690 of them are working in the construction sector in 2019 compared to 619,744 expatriates working in construction in 2017.
In Oman, there is a decrease of 17 per cent in total number of expatriates working in construction sector in the last two years.
