JEDDAH: All residents — citizens as well as illegal overstayers — who are displaced during the implementation of the Project for Development of Undeveloped Neighborhoods will be housed in an acceptable manner.

“All residents in the undeveloped areas will be compensated in a just and satisfactory way; the status of those who have been living illegally for years in the buildings — and not those who overstay after Haj or Umrah — will be corrected. They will be given substitute dwellings in new suburban housing and provided employment opportunities, education and health insurance that will guarantee a dignified life to them and their children,” Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal said in an Al-Watan article published on Saturday.

Prince Khaled said efforts were being made to eliminate undeveloped neighborhoods lacking proper infrastructure in various parts of Makkah province. “These are projects unprecedented, either locally or internationally. Such neighborhoods are found not only in Makkah, Jeddah and Taif but all over the world.”

The prince said any project to solve the problems of illegal residents in undeveloped areas inevitably produces questions and fears. Quelling the fears of the illegal residents in the neighborhoods to be developed, the prince said, “They have nothing to fear. The state guarantees their status will be corrected and will give them legitimate residence in addition to jobs in the projects being implemented in the province.” The governor said they would be settled in new residential suburbs.

Answering a question, he said the new residential areas would not be exclusively for non-Saudis, but there would be integration of citizens and non-Saudis.

The prince said that a specialized firm is studying various aspects of these problems.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has appointed a commission to develop underdeveloped neighborhoods. There are also committees to study the security, social and technical aspects involved in the development of such areas.

A security committee will study ways to correct the status of the non-Saudi residents. A social committee is studying the ways to improve their education, health and residential status.

A technical committee has the task of planning the buildings and other infrastructure for them, the prince said.

The executive committee is meeting the people in the neighborhoods where the projects are to be implemented. Special workshops are also being held. The contract for the project in Khozama has been awarded and the next will be in Ruwais.

The prince said that these projects differ from such development projects as Jabal Umar in Makkah in the sense that the interests of the poor residents would be taken care of in the former. The governor said the status of about 500,000 illegal non-Saudi residents would be corrected.

“All of them are not overstayers. Many came to us as guests, and the state accepted them. They have had children and so increased their numbers. I will not mention nationalities but a special study has been done to find out when and where they come to the Kingdom from,” he said.

He warned those who are making false claims about how long they had been in the Kingdom would be dealt with firmly. “For instance some one who came last year might destroy his travel documents and claim that he has been here a long time. He will be deported. There is a system to handle such situations.”

In the course of his talk the prince demanded that more power be granted to provincial councils so as to guarantee the speedy completion of various projects. He also stressed the need for rewriting the Kingdom’s old administrative regulations.