section_path: Demographics/Foreigners
section_name: Foreigners
paragraph_text: Foreigners
  
  The Central Department of Statistics & Information estimated the foreign population at the end of 2014 at 33% (10.1 million). The CIA Factbook estimated that as of 2013 foreign nationals living in Saudi Arabia made up about 21% of the population. Other sources report differing estimates. Indian: 1.5 million, Pakistani: 1.3 million, Egyptian: 900 000, Yemeni: 800 000, Bangladeshi: 400 000, Filipino: 500 000, Jordanian/Palestinian: 260 000, Indonesian: 250 000, Sri Lankan: 350 000, Sudanese: 250 000, Syrian: 100 000 and Turkish: 80 000.
  
  According to The Guardian, as of 2013 there were more than half a million foreign-born domestic workers. Most have backgrounds in poverty and come from Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. To go to work in Saudi Arabia, they must often pay large sums to recruitment agencies in their home countries. The agencies then handle the necessary legal paperwork.
  
  As the Saudi population grows and oil export revenues stagnate, pressure for "Saudization" (the replacement of foreign workers with Saudis) has grown, and the Saudi government hopes to decrease the number of foreign nationals in the country. Saudi Arabia expelled 800 000 Yemenis in 1990 and 1991 and has built a Saudi–Yemen barrier against an influx of illegal immigrants and against the smuggling of drugs and weapons. In November 2013, Saudi Arabia expelled thousands of illegal Ethiopian residents from the kingdom. Various Human Rights entities have criticized Saudi Arabia's handling of the issue.
  
  Over 500 000 undocumented migrant workers —mostly from Somalia, Ethiopia, and Yemen—have been detained and deported since 2013. An investigation led by The Sunday Telegraph, exposed the condition of African migrants who were detained in Saudi Arabia allegedly for containing COVID-19 in the kingdom. They were beaten, tortured, and electrocuted. Many of the migrants died due to heatstroke or by attempting suicide, after being severely beaten and tortured. The migrants lack proper living conditions, provision of food and water.
  
  Foreigners cannot apply for permanent residency, though a specialized Premium Residency visa became available in 2019. Only Muslims can become Saudi citizens. Foreigners who have resided in the kingdom and hold degrees in various scientific fields may apply for Saudi citizenship, and exception made for Palestinians who are excluded unless married to a male Saudi national, because of Arab League instructions barring the Arab states from granting them citizenship. Saudi Arabia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.