Nothing happens in Saudi Arabia unless the King wills it.
In this case, he had to see the numbers of foreigners in the country as a long-term and short-term problem. I wouldn’t worry. You now have 50,000 less people to do manual labor in the kingdom. Who exactly do you think is going to do all the crappy work? Saudis? Never in a thousand years. You can’t even get a Saudi to change tires on a car, or fill the radiator up with water.
Because they have tons of other legal workers to do the jobs. Americans, Europeans, Sri Lankans, and people from India are the most preferred to do the work for them. Saudis aren’t big fans of Eastern Africans outside of Egyptians.
One of the most surreal things I ever saw in Saudi was the deportation trucks. Was a flatbed truck with a cage on the back. Cage had bars and looked like a stereotypical jail cell. Would occasionally see the trucks on the road, full of deportees heading straight to the airport. Looked like a scene from a wasteland movie. Deportees had first priority on flights.
Or bathe themselves with soap and water.