Saudi Gazette report Many are the stories people tell of different situations they find themselves in as they pass through the notorious Baghdad Street in Jeddah's Al-Jamea District at night. However, similar stories are also told about other unplanned areas, and the fact remains hearing is not the same as experiencing. Arriving at Baghdad street and the area behind Al Mashhad – the district Eid prayer square, which can be reached through different routes – this reporter found nothing to be afraid of. Maybe because the daylight and the sight of the crowds and stalls occupying the famous street would force a visitor to stop and watch, forgetting previous impressions. The street seemed like an artery with the many narrow alleys branching from its both sides like veins connecting it to the isolated homes of the residents. Behind the Al-Mashhad area children play, men and women walk and some of them perform ablution to pray. Muhammad Al-Mutairi, Al-Jamea district resident who has been a regular visitor of Baghdad Street and an area near the Al-Mashhad where a few cousins and friends of his reside, said: “There are a few issues causing inconvenience in this neighborhood. “The largest of which is the fact that illegal residents – nationals of different countries who have no valid residency permit – are increasingly residing here.” He said the areas around Al-Mashhad and on both sides of Baghdad street, where illegal residents are dwelling currently, were all occupied by Saudi nationals decades ago. “Now few Saudis remain. “The street has always been vital to the area but the fact many of its parts were turned into parking lots and food stalls created crowds and inconvenience.” A few Saudis are neighbors to illegal residents in that area. Al-Mutairi said: “Poverty is the main reason that would force a Saudi to live in such unplanned residence in an unhygienic area. “On the weekends, you can barely see one Saudi among every dozen of the dominating population of illegal residents. “On weekend days, Al-Mashhad seems to turn into a fruit market and in the evening these residents crowd the area like spectators at a football match.” Abdulaziz, resident, thought Baghdad Street should be demolished like other unplanned areas. However, the problem of illegal residents exists in most parts of the district. He said: “Illegal residents and perpetrators of other violations are comfortably spread in most parts of Al-Jamea District. “You can see them under Alommal Bridge and all over Haraj (market selling secondhand goods) and the cloth and electronics markets. “The whole district needs to be completely demolished.” Abdullah Turkistani, municipal council member, said he wished Jeddah Municipality would “lead the development of unplanned areas and force property owners to follow its construction conditions and not be satisfied with only imposing fines.” He said the “low” fines the municipality imposes on violators had encouraged the growth of unplanned areas to a point where they encroached the limits of adjacent, planned and approved residential plots. “The municipality had approved giant development projects that were all halted,” he said, adding the municipality should force owners of ramshackle properties to develop their property or sell them in an expropriation plan for the projects “everybody is wishing for”. Metib Sultan Al-Odayani, Rawabi District mayor, said security bodies regularly raid the areas where illegal residents concentrate “but capturing all of them requires the cooperation of Saudis and legal residents of the area. “Everybody knows there are large numbers of residency violators in Al-Jamea District but the area contains nearly 300,000 homes that can represent a difficulty for security bodies.” Al-Odayani accused real estate agents of causing an increase in the numbers of illegal residents. He said the agents “have to commit to regulations prohibiting the renting out of homes to illegal residents” and cooperate with district mayors by providing a copy of the contract of each house they rent out in the area. “They do not follow the Shomoos system approved by the Ministry of Interior as they do not use computers in the first place. “The district mayor's office cannot be acquainted with everything in the neighborhood without their cooperation.”
