MAKKAH: A total of 27,882 crimes ranging from theft to murder were committed in the slums of the holy city last year, according to a statistical report issued by Makkah police, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday. Maj. Abdul Mohsen Al-Mayman, spokesman for Makkah police, said the crimes included 350 cases of sexual harassment. “Most of these crimes took place in the slum areas of the city where many illegal African expatriates live,” he said. Col. Ayedh Al-Lukmani, director of the Passport Department, said 34,425 overstayers of African origin were deported last year. Startling crimes reported in the slums include that of a Bangladeshi who put up for sale his one-year-old son for SR15,000, an overstayer from Mali who killed his 10-year-old son because he refused to beg, and a number of makeshift medical clinics which carried out illegal abortions and hymen-mending surgery.
