JEDDAH, 6 September 2004 — A group of 14 expatriate workers from Kerala who share an apartment in Jeddah were recently robbed of their cash and valuables by two men who said they were policemen. Describing themselves as members of the secret police doing a document and visa check, the two Arab men intimidated the workers with official-looking identification and what one of the workers described as “immaculate” dress.
Abdul Kareem — not his real name — told Arab News that he answered the door one evening to find the two “officials” demanding access. They produced documents and identification that described them as having the authority to check the documentation of expatriate workers. The Keralites were asked to produce their iqamas which they dutifully did. “Once they had inspected these and written down all the details,” said Abdul Kareem, “they returned the documents to us.”
The “officials” then asked to see any mobile phones the workers possessed, claiming they were checking to see whether they met current Saudi regulations. Camera-phones are banned in the Kingdom and so this raised no suspicions. Once again the workers complied with what seemed to them a reasonable request. “When they wanted to see what cash we had, it was a bit suspicious,” said Abdul Kareem. “They said they wanted to check that any cash was compatible with the amount of our salaries and that we were not involved in illegal activity that produced extra income.”
Slightly unsure at this stage but awed by the impressive looking credentials of the two “officials” and their intimidating presence, over SR10,000 was produced and stacked beside the mobile phones.
It was then that the two intruders swept the cash and the phones into bags and made off, leaving the apartment and locking the workers inside with the key taken from the front door. “We had no means of getting out and it took us half an hour to force the door,” said Abdul Kareem.
The Keralites did not report the matter to the police because they were too embarrassed at having been duped and were afraid of repercussions as the impostors had details of their iqamas and workplaces. If the “officials” were bold enough to thieve and bully as they did, what else would they be capable of?
The effects of so traumatic a visit are bad enough in themselves; theft, embarrassment, intimidation and the implied threat of future retribution. Equally disturbing is the question of identification. In the telling of the story, the victims assumed after the event that the “officials” were in fact conmen posing as genuine officials.
Were they in fact impostors or genuine officials out to abuse their position for profit? How would the victims, any expatriate or even a Saudi citizen know? How would the average law-abiding person know what a real ID looks like? Would he even have a contact phone number for checking? What about the presence of mind and self-confidence to halt two bullying people in what seemed, to all appearances, the performance of their duty?
The authorities know the identity of all legally registered workers and residents. There are many thousands of “overstayers” and illegal immigrants about whom the authorities know little or nothing. The reverse of this is that expatriates have few, if any, means of verifying the identity of an individual who poses as a government official. Many expatriate workers, because of the tenuousness of their position in the Kingdom, have no desire to challenge anyone who might have the power to deport them, resulting in the loss of income and livelihood. Indeed, the Keralites are working in a job that has been Saudized and thus were reluctant to inform the police from fear of being sent home.
One person Arab News spoke to who is an office manager in Jeddah was told by an undercover police officer he knew well that the police were under orders not to show their IDs to anyone who asked for them. The police are only to produce the ID under extreme circumstances which were not defined. The police officer continued by adding that, in the normal course of events, uniformed police officers in police cars do not carry any ID.
The US Embassy, in an advisory notice sent to US citizens in the Kingdom on June 24 this year said: “The US Embassy cautions private American citizens that it is dangerous to ignore Saudi police instructions to stop at police checkpoints or not to pull over when signaled to do so. Such actions are not only dangerous but may lead to detention by Saudi authorities.”
As widely reported in the press over the past year, Al-Qaeda elements have used both police and military uniforms and have configured vehicles to resemble police and military ones. There are also press reports that the terrorists may have used this tactic in the kidnapping of American citizen Paul M. Johnson Jr.
Indeed Al-Qaeda has used such tactics. And only because he stopped for what he thought was a police roadblock did Paul Johnson die a horrible death. In these troubled times, how is anyone to know who is a genuine official and who is not? The best disguise a poacher can adopt is that of a gamekeeper. The average person — Saudi and expatriate — is caught between a rock and a hard place. If he obeys, he could suffer; if he does not, he will suffer.
Worse even than that is the thought that genuine officials might be involved in criminal acts. Incidents of corrupt policemen, for example, have been reported in the Kingdom as they have been in many other countries. It is not a uniquely Saudi problem. The question remains, the same one the Romans asked about 2000 years ago: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? Who guards the guardians?
It seems that deception by apparent officialdom is not uncommon. Abu Amr, a translator and printer in Jeddah, related the story of his housemaid — Fouzia — and her fiancé. They were out walking one afternoon when they were approached by a well-dressed man in a limousine who introduced himself as undercover police. He demanded their iqamas and, after inspecting them, told the couple the iqamas were forgeries and that he would have to take them to a police station for further processing. “He drove the couple through the backstreets of Jeddah for some time which caused them to become increasingly frightened,” said Abu Amr. Eventually, the so-called secret police asked them where they had been going and discovered that they had intended to go shopping. “It was then that he asked how much money they had, offering to release them if they paid it over. They did; over SR300.”
Abu Amr was not in the least surprised by either incident. “There are many cases like this that I have heard about,” he said, “but news of them merits little more than a line or two in the papers.” He sympathized with the position that expatriate workers find themselves in when approached by someone seeming to have legal authority. “They are scared stiff and frequently simply pay up as asked, just to get themselves out of the situation as quickly as possible,” he said.
From information received, it appears that the problem is widespread and largely unreported. Fear of trouble with the authorities, reluctance to challenge identification and the desire just to get on with their lives in peace to support their families keeps the weaker members of the expatriate community in the Kingdom in a constant state of apprehension about officials. “Criminals know this,” said Abu Amr, “and they prey on it.”
