JEDDAH, 5 December 2002 — More than 1,600 beggars, male and female, have been arrested in Jeddah during Ramadan, according to a senior anti-beggary official.
Evaluating his department’s performance, Saad Al-Shahrani, director of the Anti-Beggary Office in Jeddah, said: “The arrests of 1,600 beggars is a notable achievement, given our limited resources. It is very important for us to prevent and to stop beggars from misusing the public’s charitable nature and good intentions. I believe that we are performing a useful service for the general public.”
Al-Shahrani contended that these beggars are neither poor nor needy. “They are greedy people collecting money by abusing the people’s good nature. Moreover, people should not shelter or help these beggars when our crews are after them. They should understand that they are not doing anything good by helping these people or alerting them that our crews are on the way to arrest them.”
He recommended that the public begin cooperating with the anti-beggary officials by informing them where the beggars operate. (The telephone number for the office is (02)6871762.)
Asked about the legal punishment for begging he said, “There are different punishments for Saudi and non-Saudi beggars. The Saudis have their cases studied by social workers in our offices. We provide the appropriate social service for each of them. Orphans go to orphanages, the handicapped go to rehabilitation centers and those who can work can be put in any available jobs. We have a separate section to deal with female beggars.”
He said the non-Saudi beggars, who constitute 98 percent of the total, are handed over to the police to be deported from the Kingdom. Most of them don’t have valid resident permits, but they will be sent home even if they have work visas. They cannot stay on in the Kingdom because they beg.”
Asked if street selling was considered legally to be begging, Al-Shahrani said: “It is illegal but that is the responsibility of the municipality and police. We know it is begging in disguise and it is one of the most difficult sorts of case for us.”
He said there were cases where beggars were injured or killed in traffic accidents while trying to escape from anti-beggary squads.
“That doesn’t stop us from going after them, but we have to be very careful. We have been experimenting with undercover work using private cars, but we need more time to develop this.”
Asked about the Afghan children who are selling chewing gum in Jeddah and who seem oblivious to police action, he said “their numbers are decreasing because of public awareness coupled with our intensive campaigns to arrest them. People are not as sympathetic toward them as they used to be”.
Al-Shahrani related one amusing incident that happened during Ramadan. Police arrested a 30-year-old beggar on the Corniche who carried papers designed to convince people that he needed money to pay for medical treatment after an accident. On inspection, arresting officers found that the papers he carried said that he was blind.
