JEDDAH, 12 March 2006 — In its largest pre-dawn raid so far this year, Jeddah security forces raided various districts all over the city yesterday, arresting 2,327 undocumented migrants, most of whom appeared to be voluntarily turning themselves in for deportation.
The five-hour operation started after midnight. Jeddah police chief Col. Misfer Al-Misahi led security forces in the operations, which involved cutting off electricity to 16 residential buildings that were crowded with overstayers. Landlords of these properties are being investigated.
Police busted up prostitution houses, illegal maid networks, forged ID document rackets, alcohol manufacturers and distributors, and illegal international call cabin operators. Drugs were confiscated from a number of homes; police said that they found large amounts of Captagon (the commercial name for a therapeutic amphetamine fenetylline) and hashish.
Hundreds of illegal overstayers have been deported to their countries, a police official said after the raid.
“Security forces will continue performing our operations till we clean out our cities from crime,” said the officer.
The overstayers have been transferred to the Passport Department for processing.
“We have solved a number of crimes by matching fingerprints,” said an official who did not want to be identified.
In Jeddah’s downtown Al-Balad district, Arab News observed hundreds of presumed overstayers turning themselves in as soon as the buses for arrested illegal aliens stopped.
Arab News asked an officer at the scene if it is common to have overstayers voluntarily turning themselves in for deportation. “Yes,” he said, “they start turning themselves in. Some just waiting to be raided to get a free ride back home, others acknowledging that they have nowhere to run,” he said.
Many undocumented migrants in this region are pilgrims that overstay their Haj visas.
