MADINAH, 11 July 2006 — Residents in Madinah have expressed their fear and horror that criminals are using abandoned houses in their neighborhoods for illegal activities.
According to residents, overstayers are using the derelict houses across the city, especially in the Al-Seeh and Al-Jabour suburbs, to sell drugs and as bootlegging factories. Residents say that property-owners continue to ignore repeated calls by the police and municipal authorities to mend or demolish the buildings.
In a raid last Thursday in Madinah, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice discovered one of the largest liquor factories in the Kingdom. According to commission members, four men were also arrested. It also later transpired that the men had been using the property to abuse women and young children.
A resident had informed the commission about the house and after monitoring it for a few days the commission together with the police raided it and arrested those involved.
Among items confiscated were 32 gallons of liquor, a large quantity of heroin and women’s clothes, something that proved the commission’s suspicions that the house was being used for illicit purposes.
People living in Madinah expressed fear and disgust. Muhammad Salamah, a resident of Al-Harra Al-Gharbiya, said that these abandoned houses pose a danger for local residents. “Forget the issue of abandoned homes being a perfect environment for dangerous insects and snakes to come and live and multiply, there is also a serious issue of these places being breeding grounds for criminals to operate from,” said Salamah.
Salamah said that he has contacted the municipality about an abandoned house near to where he lives but nothing was done. “We told the owner to either fix the house or demolish it. Some overstayers in the area are using the house to store items that they peddle on the street,” he said.
Sultan Al-Ahmadi, another resident, called on the municipality to forcibly demolish abandoned houses and not to wait for the owners to improve them.
“Every now and again we hear reports about the police raiding derelict houses where they find stolen goods or illegal overstayers. In a street in the neighborhood I live there are three abandoned houses. I’ve asked my children not to walk on that street because I’m scared of what might be happening inside,” said Al-Ahmadi.
Suleiman Al-Tuwaijri, the manager for the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Madinah, said that the commission would increase patrols of suspicious locations to prevent crimes from occurring.
