Oman sees surge in some expat nationalities, drop in others

The Sultanate of Oman is seeing a surge in expatriate workers from some nationalities, according to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The figures show that the number of expatriates from Myanmar has increased by 102.6 percent in May 2024 to 28,947. There were 23,329 expatriates from Myanmar at the end of 2023.

The number of expatriates from Tanzania has increased by 44.5 percent to 19,962, while Nepalese expatriates dropped by 2.7 percent to 20,202. It was only 20,286 at the end of 2023 and 19,262 at the end of April this year.

Among others, there are 26,374 Sri Lankan expatriates (-4.3), 42,219 Egyptians (+8.1), and 45,307 Philippine expatriates (-4.2).

Among the major expatriate communities in the Sultanate of Oman, the number of Indians went down by 4 percent to 509,006 in May 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. There were 520,431 Indians employed in the country at the end of 2023.

At the same time, the number of expatriates from Pakistan increased by five percent to 289,481 in May 2024, compared to the same period last year. There were 288,290 expatriates from Pakistan at the end of 2023.

Expatriates from Bangladesh

The biggest drop was seen among Bangladeshi expatriates, which dropped from 719,111 at the end of 2023 to 684,108 in May this year. On a year-to-year basis, there was a drop of 2.8 percent between May 2023 and 2024.

It may be noted that the Royal Oman Police (ROP) announced the suspension of the conversion of all types of tourist and visit visas to work visas for all nationalities coming to the Sultanate of Oman, as well as the issuance of all types of new visas for Bangladeshi citizens as of October 31, 2023.

But in June this year, certain categories were exempted from the visa ban imposed on Bangladeshi nationals, Oman's embassy in Dhaka said in a statement.

The exempted categories are family visas, visit visas for citizens of Bangladesh residing in GCC countries, physicians, engineers, nurses, teachers, accountants, investors, all types of official visas, and high-income tourists.