Expatriates taking the Dammam-Al-Khobar Highway are warned not to ride on private cars doubling-up as taxis. Expatriates who have taken such rides have been mugged and robbed. These private taxis usually collect passengers along the way, looking to fill the car and maximize earnings for the trip. Saudi Gazette learned that highway-robber gangs are finding it easy to pick up victims – usually expatriates who take these illegal taxis, as they are cheaper because the fare is shared by all but the driver of the car. Those who were robbed say the driver had a partner or partners with him among the other passengers in the car. “I boarded a private car plying the Dammam-Al Khobar route with some people already inside the car,” said Aboul, a Bangladeshi. “I was robbed of my SR300, the money that was my monthly support to my family back home.” “It was a mistake I will never forget,” he said. Several people have had that experience, all of them low-wage expatriates who travel the busy Dammam-Al Khobar Highway. They were robbed of their money and cell phones. Aboul narrated how he was robbed. “After traveling a few kilometers, one of the passengers, a Saudi, told the driver, also a Saudi, to stop the car because he was getting down. “That passenger, who I am sure now was a partner of the driver, took out his wallet to pay, but complained that his money was missing in his wallet and accused me and another expatriate passenger of robbing him.” Aboul said the driver parked the car and ordered the passengers to get out so that they might check their wallets. He said he and the other passenger protested, but the driver threatened to call the police. “The passenger (the driver's suspected accomplice) took my wallet and found my SR300, took it and said that was his money. Then I was pushed out of the car in the middle of the highway, and the car sped away.” Police has time and again advised passengers that the safest way to travel is to take registered taxis or public-transport buses. But for poor expatriates, riding on a metered taxi is expensive, particularly in the long stretch of the Dammam-Al Khobar highway. The public buses, which charge only SR2, are still the safest, but they are very slow, very few, and have only a particular hour for the ride. For a passenger who is in a hurry to go to his jobsite, a passenger bus is an unlikely option. __
