JEDDAH, 2 March 2003 — At the end of every Haj season, Jeddah is invaded by a flood of beggars around mosques and markets asking for money.
Excuses range from being robbed — sometimes producing ripped open bags to emphasize the point — to having been ripped off by a fake Haj agency.
Some even visit private homes and ask for money to return home or visit Madinah.
Often they add little drama to the situation by shedding tears, shyly presenting fake document or carrying their luggage to show that they truly want the money to leave, according to an investigation by the Arabic language Al-Watan newspaper.
Many Jeddah residents say they were once fooled by these stories, but no longer. These stories have lost their credibility. Many believe that if a man wants to go back home, he will use ways other than begging. Beggars, they feel, just use the Haj season for profit as many people are generous and willing to give the poor and needy during that time.
Al-Watan met Tawfeq Ba-Saqer, a Saudi citizen, who said that he was standing one day with his neighbors on the street when a pilgrim, from an Arab country, came to them claiming that he was robbed while he was performing Haj in Makkah. He said he had lost all his money, tickets, and passports and he didn’t have any money to go back home. They simply did not believe him because this was a story they had heard many times.
A neighbor, Yahya Al-Murhef, told Al-Watan: “After a prayer in our local mosque, we saw a man in ihram relating how he had been robbed by a Saudi who took all his money. He started to cry, saying that his only wish was to visit Madinah. People were sympathetic to him and gave him a lot of money. Coincidentally, I saw the same man in another mosque repeating the performance.”
Director of the anti-beggary squad in Jeddah, Saad Al-Shahrani, that these beggars take advantage of Haj season to make a lot of money. “They are professionals in getting people’s sympathy when they tell them their stories,” he said.
Al-Shahrani said that his squad caught more than 3,000 beggars, male and female, in the past four months alone. The squad constantly searches mosques, markets, public streets and areas around traffic lights.
“Saudis who are caught begging are transferred to government institutions who take care of them. The foreigners are sent home,” Al-Shahrani said.
