Badea Abu Al-Naja Saudi Gazette MAKKAH — The passport police nabbed more than 100 illegal foreigners who had taken refuge in several neighborhoods of Makkah. Maj. Gen. Faisal Al-Swailim led the campaign, which was launched Tuesday morning. Officers identified the locations of illegal workers and kept them under surveillance for several weeks. Saudi Gazette met with some of the arrested illegal workers. Ethiopian national Abdul Qadir said he had entered the Kingdom through Yemen over a year ago and came to stay in Makkah. He did odd jobs including working as mechanic and construction worker and lived in a neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. Yemeni national Muhammad said he had crossed into the Kingdom illegally through the porous border between the two countries. He claimed that he had to walk all the way across the mountainous terrain and the journey took him more than two months. “When I entered the Saudi territory, I paid SR1,000 so smugglers could take me to the nearest city. I eventually ended up in Makkah where I did some begging and then started selling vegetables on the street,” he said. Many of the illegal workers arrested stayed in small, cramped houses in miserable conditions. In one case, officers found 10 men in a small room that lacked any ventilation. Officers also found fruit stored in the room ready to be sold. Dr. Muhammad Madani, medical director of Tunsi Hospital of Makkah, warned the public against consuming produce purchased from street vendors as they might cause diseases, including respiratory infections, tuberculosis, meningitis and scabies.
