JEDDAH, 12 May 2005 — The fingerprints of everyone entering the Kingdom will be taken on arrival as a new law comes into effect in the near future. According to a security official who spoke to Arab News, the new law has been approved and will be implemented very soon in coordination with Saudi embassies.
The reasons for fingerprinting, the source said, were security-related. He pointed out that expatriates with criminal records in the Kingdom sometimes return to the country using a different name and passport. “It seems that in their countries, it is very easy to get new passport, ID number and to get rid of past criminal records.”
He observed, however, that it was not possible to get a new fingerprint or get rid of your existing one. He also said: “Another problem the government faces is that some foreigners, especially from Africa, get rid of any form of identity papers as soon as they enter the country. And when they are deported without documents, their countries won’t accept them and they are sent back to the Kingdom.”
There have recently been a number of raids on different areas in which thousands of overstayers and other criminals have been arrested. Since Chadians topped the list of those arrested, the Saudi government made the decision not to renew their iqamas or grant them new visas.
Arab News spoke to a number of citizens and expatriates about the new fingerprinting decision.
Abu Nasser, a Saudi, said: “I think it’s a wise decision by the government and is bound to solve a number of issues which our government is facing.”
A long-time American resident said: “Anything that can reduce the number of overstayers is welcome. The Kingdom needs to get rid of many of these illegal residents — who may have entered the Kingdom legally.”
A long-time Indian resident said that the decision had its bad points and its good ones. He felt that the bad point was that people entering the country would ask why they were being treated like criminals. At the same time, he admitted that it seemed to be the only way for the Kingdom to meet its security challenges.
