Egypt has warned citizens from seeking "free work visas", urging them not to deal with any individuals or offices which promote any free work visas for working abroad.

In an official statement on Thursday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said such visas are fake and often lead to deportation due to the visas violating residency laws in countries abroad, with citizen's data then being added to stop-lists.

Workers are then at risk of not receiving any job opportunities in the same country again due to obtaining a record of a history of violations due to the fake visa, as well as the loss of money paid for such visas, according to the statement.

“There is no such thing as free[work] visas,” the ministry said, stressing that Egyptians must obtain work visas through official channels represented by licensed job placement offices abroad by the Egyptian Ministry of Manpower and Immigration.

This is not the first time that Egypt has alerted citizens of such visas, as they are often advertised and widely spread on social media.

Last month, the Ministry warned citizens against from obtaining an advertised one-year free residency visa in Lebanon to seek jobs, pointing that the visa does not actually fall under Lebanese law.

According to recent statistics provided by CAPMAS (Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics), the number of Egyptian expats around the world is numbered at 9.5 million, with 6 million working in Arab states.