Muscat: Over 60,000 expat workers with ‘irregular’ visa statuses have registered to leave the Sultanate, of which over 40,000 have already exited the country.

Shedding light on the details, the Ministry of Labour elucidated that 65,173 expats have already registered to exit the country under the exit scheme (also known as the outpass scheme).

From the list of registrations, 46,355 people have already left the Sultanate. The exit scheme was brought into effect in November 2020 as a means to aid expat workers with illegal work statuses in returning to their home country.

In a statement issued today [Tuesday, March 23], the Ministry of Labour pointed out that the period designated for adjusting the status of (non-abiding) expat workers will end on 31 March.

No more applications will be entertained after the set deadline, noting that those expats benefiting from the scheme will have to exit the country by June 30, 2021.

Salim Said al-Badi, the Director General of Labour Welfare at the Labour Ministry, said: “A large number of expat workers benefited from the grace period by registering at the Ministry’s website or through Sanad Offices.