A few weeks ago I wrote an article entitled “The Revolt of the Zenj” in which I tried to raise awareness about the growing problem of illegal immigrants in our country.
A reader responded to my article with the suggestion that the Saudi government surround the areas where these immigrants live with tanks and soldiers. He suggested that we then enslave them for a period of six months to “pay” for their passage home. I will not comment on the morality of the reader’s suggestion, but I will point out that this method or something similar has already been tried.
A number of years ago, the Saudi government rounded up some four thousand illegal immigrants from West Africa, put them on a ship and sent it on its way to West Africa. Not one single West African government would allow the ship to dock in their ports. Their argument — which was a perfectly valid one — was that the Saudi government could not prove the nationalities of any of the people on the ship. The ship thus had no choice but to return to Saudi Arabia with its human cargo and nothing else has been done to deal with the problem.
We can of course continue to ignore this situation and bury our heads in the sand in our time-honored Saudi way. It will not, however, go away; it will in fact get worse.
I would like to point out to those of you who get all hot and bothered at the prospect of treating these people as human beings — they are not criminals! Their crime is their attempt to escape grinding poverty in their own countries by coming to our country and seeking a better life. In other words, they are as guilty as any of us who want a better life for ourselves and our children. We are lucky in that we do not need to emigrate and put ourselves at the mercy of others as they have done but remember “There, but for the grace of God, go I”.
I would also like to point out that many of these immigrants are now third or even fourth generation residents in the Kingdom. Many in these generations have never been outside this country. Can they honestly still be considered African? Or even foreign?
The choice is ours. We can transform this tragedy into something positive which will benefit everyone or we can do nothing and wait until it becomes a national catastrophe. Keep in mind one thing: The clock is ticking.
