The capital, Muscat, saw the majority of the 27,837 illegal expats arrested at 8,923 Illegal workers from Bangladesh made up nearly three quarters of those arrested, at 20,557 DUBAI: There were 500 expat workers were arrested in 2017 in Oman for violating the country’s labor law, according to figures released by the Ministry of Manpower, local daily Times of Oman reported. The capital, Muscat, saw the majority of the 27,837 illegal expats arrested at 8,923, while North Batinah, Dhofar and South Batinah saw 6,918, 3,017 and 1,798 expats arrested respectively. Illegal workers from Bangladesh made up nearly three quarters of those arrested, at 20,557, while Pakistanis and Indians stood at 3,285 and 1,955 respectively. Earlier this year, the Omani government imposed the initial six month ban on expat workers getting visas for jobs in 87 industries, including media, engineering, marketing and sales, accounting and finance, IT, insurance, technicians, administration and HR. The Omanization drive is part of a government’s push to recruit more of its citizens, a similar push is underway across the GCC where countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have also been trying to increase the number of locals in employment.