JEDDAH, 15 January — Passport officials have arrested more than 4,000 Arab and Asian overstayers who came to perform Umrah and stayed back in the country for more than one year.
The search and investigations division in the Passports Department raided a number of houses and apartments in some poor neighborhoods in central and south Makkah over the last few days. They arrested the large number of people who had been staying in the Kingdom violating the residence regulations, according to an official of the Passports Department.
Brig. Gen. Hassan Rishwan, director general of the Haj and Umrah affairs division in the Passports Department, said his office had stepped up the search campaigns shortly after Eid Al-Fitr. The patrol teams reported the presence of overstayers in large numbers in the old parts of the city. Some expatriate laborers with valid visa have also accused of sheltering the overstaying pilgrims from their country. These laborers arranged the cover-up for their illegally staying compatriots and offered them all kinds of assistance, said Rishwan.
The overstayers came to the Kingdom on Umrah visas and did not return to their home countries even one year after the expiration of their visas. They have been hiding in some crowded and poor neighborhoods in the city. Most of them subsisted on charities as they did not have any work.
The arrested people were handed to the investigations division in the Passports Department for complete legal procedures. They face imprisonment and fines on charges of overstaying and violation of the residence regulations, the official added.
Passport officials arrested 144 overstayers from 12 vehicles Al-Shumaisy check point. They were heading for Makkah to perform Umrah in the last days of Ramadan.
Meanwhile the Passports Department in Asir rounded up and deported 100 African housemaids, who violated the residence and labor regulations in the country.
