JEDDAH, 16 August 2005 — Security forces raided 157 houses and apprehended 904 people in Jeddah early yesterday morning.
According to the Jeddah police, 18 of the detainees are suspected criminals while the others are overstayers and their accomplices. Eleven security and government departments took part in the crackdown, which was led by Brig. Gen. Misfer Al-Zuhami, the head of Jeddah police.
The city has witnessed a large number of security crackdowns in the past year in which thousands of overstayers have been apprehended.
In the latest operation, security forces raided Al-Sharafia and Al-Rabwah districts. The raids began just after midnight on Sunday and continued until dawn. Among the illegals caught in the raid were a gang of car thieves and one of forgers. The police also raided houses of prostitution and unlicensed clothing factories.
In Sharafia, police raided what appeared to be at most a two-bedroom apartment and were surprised to find a medium-sized high-tech clothing factory.
“You wouldn’t realize that a small place like that (pointing to the apartment) could hold such a large, profitable, sophisticated business,” a policeman at the scene said to Arab News.
He added that the building had been renovated to accommodate the machinery needed for the illegal business.
Since the police began their crackdown several months ago, overstayers have become more adept at selecting their hideaways; most of them now have two exits.
Other hideaways have secret passages that take you to larger rooms with numbers of people living in them. One police officer who found a secret hideaway said, “A cat led me in.”
Abu Manea, a 70-year-old Saudi resident of Al-Rabwah, said, “We are happy that the police are cracking down on our area; the raids will clean it of crime that has affected our children.”
He went on to explain, “We have complained a number of times to the authorities and to the landlords. Each time we go to the landlords, we find there is a foreigner legally working in the Kingdom with all the legal documents. The problem is that that person provides housing for illegal overstayers.”
Residents in the districts, both Saudis and expatriates have helped police in pinpointing suspicious individuals and houses in the neighborhood.
