“We've become foreigners in our own city. It's just not on!” So says Hamdan Hassan of the increasing number of pilgrim overstayers in his neighborhood off Al-Haj Street in the north of Makkah. The area, he says, has rapidly come to be known as “The Bangladeshi District” following a large and rapid influx of persons working illegally with expired visas. Local Saudis also complain of poor infrastructure and no street lighting which they believe is helping to turn the place into a haven for crime. Many locals have reportedly preferred to move out in the wake of the influx of foreigners, and remaining families have noticed their children developing a form of pidgin speech due to their daily contact with Bangladeshis living in the area. Despite the lack of any figures on crime rates in the area, parents are also fearful for their children when they go out to the shops at the bottom of the road, saying that the foreign workers “gather there at the entrance to the neighborhood”. Residents say that these are not their only issues, as the zone requires replanning and its steep hillside roads, which have become extremely difficult to negotiate, need resurfacing. A quick tour of the east of the street reveals the difficulties in reaching certain houses, many of which are over 50 years old. “There are some houses which water trucks can't get to as the road is too steep and bumpy,” says local resident Muhammad Al-Ghamdi. ‘Future works soon' “We went to the Mayor's Office over five years to get the road up the hill resurfaced, but there's been no response,” says Muhammed Dhibyani, whose home stands at the top of the hill along with dozens of others. “The request apparently went to the city planning department who included it in their ‘future works to be carried out soon', but what and when are these ‘future projects' to be when we went to them about this five years ago?!” Safar Al-Ghamdi wants street lighting. “The whole place is left in darkness at night and this attracts burglars, and we've also got shops popping up everywhere and anywhere and people selling stuff on the sidewalks,” Al-Ghamdi says. “The Mayoralty needs to step in and provide street lighting and return some dignity to the place.” The Mayor of Makkah, Osama Al-Bar, said that comprehensive studies had been done on unplanned areas around Al-Haj Street and Wadi Jalil, but promised residents that his office would make a visit to “look at the situation and find a rapid solution”.
