"Concealing illegal foreigners and providing them with accommodation and jobs harm society and contribute to criminal activities," Al-Saadi was quoted by business daily Al-Eqtisadiah in a report.
Al-Saadi said illegal foreign employees are a detriment to the country's development plans. "For this very reason we should not hide illegal workers and report them to the police," he said.
The paper quoted Jeddah police spokesman First Lt. Nawwaf Al-Bouq as saying the police regularly receive information on its free hotline from citizens about the locations of illegal foreigners. "We verify the truth of the information and then act accordingly. We also organize weekly raids and establish checkpoints to catch them," he said.
Al-Bouq also warned citizens against sheltering or employing illegal foreigners and asked sponsors not to release them to take jobs for which they were not recruited in exchange for small amounts of money. "Illegal foreign workers are a source of crime," he warned.
The official spokesman of the Makkah Passport Department, Lt. Col. Muhammad Al-Hussain, gave a description of the way raids are conducted to nab illegal foreigners. Plainclothes units from the Jeddah Passport Department closely watch locations where illegal foreigners usually concentrate with the aim of detaining them.
He said the Passport Department dispatches secret security patrols every day to monitor areas where illegal foreigners assemble.
According to the spokesman, the areas where their targets usually concentrate are identified by the secret Passport Department units during their patrols or through the information provided by citizens.
"After earmarking the areas, the patrols raid these locations to arrest foreigners who have violated residence and work rules and regulations," he said.
Al-Hussain said the Passport Department carries out the raids either individually or in collaboration with other agencies concerned such as the police and the municipality. He added that all detained foreigners are handed over to the expatriates' administration at the Passport Department.
He explained foreigners are fingerprinted and if any one of them is wanted for any crime, he is handed over to the authorities concerned.
The spokesman said workers escaping from their sponsors are asked either to rectify their situations or deported. He added that the fingerprinting system enables passport police to obtain enough data on violating foreigners.
Meanwhile, Dr. Abdullah Al-Saeed, head of the department of sociology and social services at Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University, said in a study that foreigners constitute about a third of the population in the Kingdom. "With annual money transfers exceeding SR80 billion, these foreigners have a great impact on the Saudi economy," he said.
He said illegal foreign workers are often involved in crimes that threaten security such as those involving bribery, forgery, robbery, embezzlement, fraud and others.
Al-Saeed called for the formation of combined committees from the ministries of labor and interior to closely monitor illegal foreigners and to develop strict terms and conditions for the recruitment of foreign manpower to ensure that they were qualified, trained and skilled.
