Authorities monitoring illegal aliens have issued over 1,000 rulings against people smuggling of illegal aliens in the Kingdom over the last 40 days. The penalties issued by the Administrative Committee for Expatriates Follow-Up included imprisonment, fines and confiscation of vehicles used in the smuggling of people entering the country illegally. Some of the rulings were handed out to workers who had contravened the Iqama (residency) law and had been detected by the fingerprint system while departing the Kingdom or returning with false names. Hussein Al-Harithy of the committee said they had doubled the penalty against smugglers, and praised the effectiveness of the fingerprinting system. “It helped in detecting several expatriates wanted in connection with crimes, as well as a lot of runaway house workers,” he said.
