Khusaifi, like any other young man in Saudi Arabia, dreams of earning qualifications to embark on a career followed by marriage and a family, but all his plans are being held up by the small matter of 155,000-riyals-worth of traffic fines. “When my parents split up and I was 16 the family needed someone to earn some extra money, as my father was only making 2,000 riyals a month at the time,” Al-Khusaifi said. “I said we should hire a car so I could work as a taxi driver and help him out.” Al-Khusaifi, however, did not have driving license, but he insists he had no option. “All other avenues were closed to me,” he said. “When I applied for jobs they either said I was too young or that I had no relevant skills.” In his pursuit of a living on the streets of Jeddah he began to accumulate one fine after another when police caught him driving without a license and transporting passengers in the city and sometimes to Makkah, and occasionally as far away as Madina. He wouldn't hear of his mother going to ask people for money, determined as he was to bring in enough himself, his time divided between his studies at the Institute of Optics and giving rides to passengers. “I'm sure if I graduate I'll be able to find a decent job because there are openings in the market for those sorts of qualifications, but unfortunately I can't get married or move on in my life because of this mountain of fines,” he said, unfolding a seemingly interminable scroll of traffic offenses. With the fines left unpaid, Al-Khusaifi is unable to proceed with any bureaucratic operation, from acquiring a passport to renewing his identity card or obtaining a bank loan. Zaid Al-Hamzi, the spokesman for Jeddah Traffic Department, was unable to provide words of hope for Al-Khusaifi. “There is no leniency with rule breakers,” Al-Hamzi said. “The law applies to the little man and the big shot equally.” According to Al-Hamzi, Al-Khusaifi will have to pay up before he can even obtain a driving license. “Put simply, if he doesn't pay up,” Al-Hamzi frowned, “he won't be able to avail himself of any other services from any government departments.”
