MADINAH, 13 November 2007 — The Passport Department fined a popular café in Madinah SR400,000 for employing 52 overstayers as waiters, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday. The overstayers, who were hired on low salaries, will be deported.
The arrests follow a Passport Department campaign, which has also led to the arrest of 100 overstayers working at a shopping mall in the city.
According to a Passport Department official, a manager at the mall employed the overstayers at below average wages.
Meanwhile, in an ongoing swoop on crime in the Eastern Province, authorities arrested 411 people after a series of raids in the Al-Khaleej district of Dammam on Saturday, Al-Madinah newspaper reported yesterday.
Their crimes relate to forgery, drug dealing, bootlegging, dabbling in magic, running illegal telephone booths, overstaying visas, violating traffic laws, and running away from sponsors, it said.
Security teams comprising police officers, Passport Department officials, members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and municipality officials carried out the raids.
Some 300 people, including 187 Saudis, were issued traffic violation tickets.
Spokesman for the Eastern Province Police Col. Yousuf Al-Qahtani said the campaign was successful in arresting a huge number of criminals.
