HAIL — The passport police have arrested 1,179 African and Arab infiltrators who crossed the border illegally and moved north to Hail over the past three months, Al-Watan daily reported. A Hail Passport Department spokesman said in Rafha governorate, six African infiltrators were apprehended with the help of residents who showed officers where the illegal workers were hiding. Residents and police officers closed in on the infiltrators and blocked all entries and exits around the governorate. A Northern Border police spokesman said one of the infiltrators was from Somalia while the others were Ethiopians. One of them tried to run away when he saw the police. He hid in a rest area but officers found him and arrested others who were also in the area. In Al-Jouf, seven Ethiopian illegal workers were arrested inside farms while officers were still combing the surrounding areas searching for any illegal workers. Sources told Al-Watan that the officers would continue to crack down on infiltrators from Africa whose number has been on the increase. Some residents said a large number of them were spotted in farms, rest areas and camps. Most of them use the Madinah-Hail Highway to travel to several places in east and north Hail. Another source said African infiltrators would pay SR2,000 to get sneaked into the Kingdom and be taken to remote areas and villages so that security officers do not chase them. A Hail police spokesman said three African men were nabbed inside a farm in north Hail during a police raid. In southern Saudi Arabia, police and Border Guard patrols arrested 183 people who were hiding in the mountains of Jazan. Officers also raided some hideouts in the mountains of Belghazi and 14 Ethiopians and a Yemeni illegal worker were apprehended. A Jazan police spokesman said 34 Yemeni and 20 African infiltrators were arrested and a 150-liter barrel full of alcohol was destroyed. The spokesman dismissed reports claiming that some citizens were injured and taken to hospital after Ethiopian infiltrators fired at them.
