JEDDAH: Jeddah police spokesman Col. Misfer Al-Juaid said on Sunday that the authorities are still investigating the case of six African bodies found on Thursday along the highways between Al-Lith and Jeddah.
However, Juaid told Arab News in a telephone interview that police have ruled out foul play.
“There is no criminal motive behind it,” he said.
In a previous statement, Gen. Salim Al-Belaihed, director general of the Passport Department, said he was awaiting the results of an investigation by Makkah police. “We’ll provide all information once the investigation is completed.”
Police believe the six men jumped from the windows of Passport Department buses that were transporting them to Jeddah to facilitate their deportations.
They believe the men took their chances in an attempt to escape, but died from the injuries sustained from their jumping.
The Passport Department was transporting about 200 men of various African nationalities from Jazan to Jeddah in an unreported number of buses moving in convoy up the Red Sea coast from near the Yemeni border where many migrants attempt illegal entry into the Kingdom for work. The bodies were discovered by highway patrols.
Questions had been raised because immigration officials did not report the men missing after they processed the other migrants at a deportation center in Jeddah.
Officials learned of the incidents when they were interviewing the detained migrants.
