RIYADH, 13 March 2004 — Four travel agency employees are still being detained amid hopes in the travel industry that the government will announce a grace period for Saudization of the business next week.
Most of the workers arrested in raids earlier this week have been released piecemeal. The remaining four, currently languishing in deportation cell No. 2 in Riyadh, say they are spending sleepless nights in unhygienic conditions. “I and the remaining four were picked up from different travel agencies,” said Mohammed Banaras Khan of Trans Continent Agency, who was released Wednesday night after his sponsor obtained an order from the governorate.
Vashappilly Ramachandran Suresh told Arab News from his cell: “We are getting worse because of the unhygienic conditions here,” he said by telephone.
Suresh said the other men were a Sri Lankan named Peter, an Egyptian named Mohammed Sabeed and an Indian worker, Raju Pappu.
The four workers were picked up from Azizia and Rabwa districts of Riyadh.
Suresh, whose wife has just delivered a baby boy, sent his family back home to India recently. He has not told them that he is in lockup.
After a visit from a company representative Wednesday evening, Suresh is hopeful that he and his colleagues will be released soon. Asked about any assurances given by Saudi officials to resolve the problem, Dr Nasser Al-Tayyar, chairman of Al-Tayyar Travel Group, told Arab News he was hopeful of “positive developments next week”.
“There have been no raids and no detentions Thursday and I am also optimistic about some good news coming from the government officials,” said Rashid Al-Mugaid, general manager of United Saudi Travel Agents (USTA).
Al-Tayyar said a rumor that there will be a three-month grace period for Saudization of the sector was “only a rumor, but I expect some sort of solution or some words from the government on the issue.”
He added travel agents outside Riyadh are not affected by the crackdown.
Meanwhile many expatriate travel agents were seen doing business from their homes or their cars or standing near their offices.
“I am so scared that I have been working from my home for the last 10 days,” said Azad, who did not want to identify his company for fear of official reprisals.
