Foreign workers leave as kingdom’s economy falters

Hundreds of thousands of expatriate workers are leaving Saudi Arabia as the economy suffers from the effects of volatile oil prices and the young crown prince’s reforms. More than 700,000 foreigners, mostly low-paid construction workers from the sub-continent, are reported to have left in the past year. The figures show how deeply a crash in construction projects, as the country ran out of money to pay its bills, affected the economy. The departures also reflect attempts by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to reform the country and make it more self-reliant. He wants to replace foreign workers with local ones by encouraging the young population to forgo the bloated public sector for private sector jobs, but this does not appear to be happening fast enough.