Saudi Arabia is set to deport more than 27,000 Indonesian workers, who overstayed their work permits, over the next few weeks, according to a report.

The government agencies are working with the Indonesian diplomatic missions in Riyadh and Jeddah to deport the workers in groups, said the Arab News report.

Those repatriated would include maids and children currently stranded in cities across the country, it said.

About 5,000 of the 27,000 workers have already left for Indonesia, said a source. The deported workers will not be able to return to the kingdom under new regulations recently introduced.

Saudi Arabia would pay for those workers unable to afford their airfares home. This year’s figure exceeds the 20,379 workers sent home last year, said a report quoting Indonesian Deputy Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohammad Fachir.

“For this repatriation, we have prioritised vulnerable people including children, infants, the elderly and the sick,” Abdurrahman Mohammad Fachir, Indonesian Deputy Foreign Minister, was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Jeddah police arrested as many as 49,000 foreigners for violating residency and labour regulations over the past three months and handed them over to the concerned authorities, the report added.