Police and Labor officials jointly arrested 200 illegal workers who violated rules governing work and residence at a popular mobile phone market in the Palestine Street of Jeddah, in a recent operation, Capt. Nawaf Bouq, spokesman of Jeddah police, said.

The arrested workers were caught red-handed while trading in imitation mobile phones and illegal or stolen SIM cards, Al-Bouq said.

He said that police continuously make raids at markets in Jeddah and no market in the city is exempted.

In a related development, a number of Saudi business owners and customers complained that expatriate workers in the area exploited lack of regular monitoring activities by law enforcing agencies and engaged in trades depriving Saudis youths of their legitimate right for work. They urged the Labor Ministry to beef up inspections in the street.

A Saudi trader Bandar Al-Shamri said the mobile phone market at the Palestine Street is full of illegal workers and they rent the shops in the name of some Saudis and run cover-up business.

A shopper Naif Al-Khalifa urged the authorities to clean the market of all illegal workers and shutter all shops illegally operated there.

He said the expatriate workers’ competition has raised the rent rate in the market and a stall’s rent has reached between SR2,000 to SR3,000.

Another shop owner Salman Al-Tamimi said the competition by the expatriate laborers have made it virtually impossible for Saudi youth to pursue any trade in the market. He urged the ministry to open a monitoring office in the street and arrest all illegal workers, who shutter their shops and vanish when they realize that inspectors may raid in the area.