A friend of mine related to me recently an incident that happened to him.
He was driving his car in Jeddah, when he realized that he had a flat tire.
He parked in a side street and when he got out of his car to change the tire, he was attacked by two “Takrunis”.
Takruni is a term used in Saudi Arabia to describe illegal immigrants from West Africa. It supposedly alludes to an ancient kingdom there called Takrun.
He was knocked unconscious and, on regaining consciousness, discovered that he had been robbed.
When he went to report the crime at the police station the officer in charge told him to file a complaint but not to hold his breath. It seems this type of crime has become quite common in our fair city.
I was sorry to hear of my friend’s misfortune, but it comes as no surprise to me.
I have been expecting our “Takruni” brothers to prey on our society for a long time.
We do not allow any of them to be treated in our hospitals if they fall ill; nor do we allow their children to be educated in any of our schools.
We force them to live in areas without any services and in highly unsanitary conditions.
In short, we treat them like animals.
Is it any wonder that they should now avenge themselves upon us by spreading crime and vice in our cities?
Illegal immigration by this community and others is a very real problem for Saudi authorities.
Ignoring the problem, however, will not solve it.
Far better would be to face this problem and come up with solutions or at least ways of decreasing the negative effects of illegal immigration.
In this case, I would suggest attempting to replace some of the millions of imported workers with members of the “Takruni” community after suitable training. Especially as they will be doing work most Saudis will refuse to do anyway.
We must allow members of this community to be treated in our hospitals and we must provide them with adequate education facilities.
We should issue iqamas to them, which will have the positive effect of bringing them out into the open where adequate and humane methods of integrating them into our society and economy can be implemented.
This is a very difficult problem, but, one that is not impossible to solve. The rewards far outweigh the risks.
Apathy, laziness, shirking of responsibility and blaming others for our own faults are today Saudi virtues. It is time we abandoned such inadequate characteristics as they have shown over and over to be worse than useless in dealing with problems.
