JEDDAH, 30 July 2007 — Residents of the eastern reaches of Jeddah’s Briman district are complaining about the rising number of illegal residents living near and subsisting off of the city dump.
According to residents of the neighboring area, the authorities have conducted many raids to eliminate the gatherings of illegal expatriates near the city dump but as soon as some are detained and deported more arrive to replace them.
“These people know the area well and they can easily disappear between the hills in the surrounding area,” said Ahmad Muabbar, head of the anti-fraud department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, who added that police have a hard time capturing the squatters living in clusters of shanties.
Muabbar added that many of these illegal residents — mostly poor, illegal African immigrants scratching out an existence from Jeddah’s refuse — are taking expired food products from the dump and sending them into the unregulated economy of street stalls, some of which can be seen set up near the city dump. Even part of the fence is missing, having been stripped to sell or be used as building material.
“Products that were supposed to be disposed are usually found again in the market because they get stolen from the trucks and re-sold by the illegal expatriates who reside in the dump,” he said.
Muabbar said that the authorities have organized a plan to hold scheduled raids over the city dump and to provide security escort to vehicles that transports expired goods to the city dump.
A source in the municipality said that work is ongoing on the new city dump that is located about 40 km to the east of Jeddah. The new dump is surrounded by a concrete fence, which would prevent people form going in. He said that the new dump is expected to function by the end of this year.
