Reacting to an article I wrote on the fire that broke out last week at a girls’ school in Makkah — fortunately there were no serious injuries — a reader drew my attention to an interesting fact. Most of the girls at the school were children of families who are in the Kingdom without legal residency or identity papers. For this reason, the girls and other children in similar circumstances cannot attend government schools or receive public health services.
The state of course has every right not to provide free services to those who are illegally in the country. At the same time, the presence of these individuals is a reality which cannot be denied and should be dealt with in a humane way. Which is better? Leaving the children without education, health care and other services or providing them with those services until a solution is worked out? Surely the former is preferable in that it would most likely keep them from becoming harmful elements in society.
The case of the school in Makkah is not the only one. There are at present large numbers of people who have lived illegally in the country for decades but who possess no residence documents. Entire neighborhoods and districts in both Makkah and Jeddah are populated by illegal residents; the overwhelming majority of them are poor. This is a bitter and unpleasant reality that must be faced and dealt with. Failure to do so will lead to serious problems in the short-term as well as the long-term.
The changes to the Saudi citizenship law will surely take a long time to be implemented while this problem calls upon us to find quick solutions. With poverty and illiteracy rampant among these people, they are time bombs waiting to explode. I, for one, wonder how they manage to live without education, health care, public services and, usually, no work. Imagine a situation in which a group of people is confined to one place, unable to leave it or to lead what we Saudis would consider a normal life. The doors to a decent living are closed to them. Imagine the reaction of those living under such circumstances with no one willing to extend a helping hand. Will those unfortunates agree to defeat or will they turn into monsters, smashing everything in their path?
