Over 800 persons, mostly of African nationalities, were rounded up in Makkah Sunday for violation of residency and labor laws, begging and exploiting visitors to holy sites in the city. Passports Department officers said that 47 persons were arrested at Jabal Al-Rahma for “misleading visitors by urging them to buy pens to write their names or the names of sick relatives to protect them”, and selling what they claimed to be “holy stones.” Another 86 were arrested in Mina. Others were detained for car washing and selling Zamzam water, along with a number of individuals working as agents to employ runaway housemaids and pilgrims seeking work after overstaying the period of their visas. An official from Haj and Umrah Affairs at the Passports Department said that they had stepped up their efforts to identify persons living and working illegally in the city, adding that anyone found to be sheltering individuals would be dealt with to the letter of the law.
