RIYADH, 1 May 2005 — A large number of Asian expatriates detained during the monthlong police swoop in Riyadh city have been released after questioning. Other detainees, some of them charged for offenses they allegedly committed, are still in deportation centers or jails.
More than 1,000 criminals and illegal workers, mainly from Asia and Africa, were detained since early April when the raids began. Police raided 18 locations in the city with high concentrations of illegal workers.
Currently, Asian embassies are issuing emergency travel documents to enable the detained overstayers to return to their countries.
Ali Akbar, deputy chief of the Bangladeshi mission, said yesterday that overstayers and criminals are being targeted during the continuing police raids.
He said reports about a Saudi ban on the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers, as published in an Arabic daily recently, “is false and misleading. Bangladeshi workers alone are not targeted,” said Akbar.
He said the “concocted news” of the ban had already been clarified by the authorities and the Arabic newspaper which reported it has since published a retraction. “Saudi and Bangladeshi officials have made it categorically clear on more than one occasion that no ban has been imposed on the recruitment of workers from Bangladesh,” said the diplomat.
Asked about the exact number of Indian workers detained during the police searches, V.V. Narayanan, first secretary at the Indian Embassy, said that the embassy issued 105 emergency travel documents in two days. This probably indicates the extent of the problem, he added.
Narayanan said the embassy “had so far not received any complaints about police excesses” during the raids.
Similar views were echoed by Adrian Cruz, vice consul at the Philippine Embassy.
Cruz said a huge majority of Filipino workers detained during the raids had been released. “Their respective Saudi sponsors held talks with officials and jail authorities paving way for the eventual release of the workers who were innocent,” he said.
The diplomats, however, welcomed the move of Riyadh police to clean up the city. They said an Asian claiming to be a diplomat was also arrested when a makeshift brothel in the city was raided. The man was arrested while trying to escape along with 10 men and six women accomplices.
Continuing raids have led to the discovery of a number of stolen cars and vehicle registration plates. Police arrested one pervert, three pickpockets and 10 drunkards during raids last week. Jawaid Ahmed, an Asian who witnessed the raids conducted in Al-Wazarat district, said the searches had stopped in some districts “probably because of overcrowding at the deportation center.”
From a home in the Manfooha district, more than one kilogram of hashish and a large quantity of illicit liquor were seized.
Two Ethiopian women, infected with AIDS, have been detained in another raid. A group of Pakistanis with forged iqamas has been arrested. The police also recovered a large number of pornographic CDs and films during the searches.
