JEDDAH, 6 December 2007 — The Kingdom spends SR420 million annually to send overstayers back to their home countries.
According to Ali Hassan Al-Nagur, head of the transport committee at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, job opportunities that these overstayers find in the Kingdom help them stay in the country.
He said the best solution to the problem was to oblige every person who is coming for Haj or Umrah to provide a financial guarantee equivalent to the price of his ticket home.
Nagur said the Kingdom spends SR60 million during Umrah season and SR60 million after every Haj. Another SR300 million is spent every year to deport workers who flee their sponsors. Nagur is calling for establishing a separate body that would take care of these cases rather than the Ministry of Haj.
“Specialists in this field can present their suggestions and ideas (at this establishment),” he said. “This would smooth the flow of pilgrims and would eliminate overstaying.”
Nagur said that the lack of awareness drives citizens to recruit and protect overstayers. Seventy percent of overstayers are here because they receive support from citizens, while the rest are here because they are able to hide from authorities until they could perform Haj, he said. Forty percent of overstyers are also practicing begging and are provided with shelters by expatriate residents from their countries.
Nagur said that these overstayers consist a real threat to the national economy. “They continuously sent money to their countries and there are no exact statistics documenting their numbers,” he said.
Nagur suggested that it might be useful to provide intending overstayers with a one-year iqama. “This would help in documenting their stay and make their sponsors responsible for sending them home,” he said.
