DAMMAM: Arrested male and female beggars in the Kingdom received SR700 million in alms in just one year, according to recent statistics provided by MBA students at King Saud University in Riyadh during an anti-beggary awareness campaign they launched under the title "You're the Reason" (Anta Alsabab).

About 90 percent of the arrested beggars were either violating the residency law or had entered the country illegally. Thus they pose a

real threat to social and economic security, the study said.

Abdullah Al-Shomar, one of the campaign's organizers, said: "The campaign urges people to stop giving money to beggars who roam the streets and instead, encourages donations through the eligible formal channels under the control of government agencies."

Another organizer of the campaign said that the stopping of donations and charities is not their end, but the campaign aims to direct these funds to the official associations and institutions that are subject to state controls and systems.

Faihan Al-Dalbahi, one of the organizers, said: "I made several tours to meet many male and female beggars, where I found that begging

has become a profession managed by gangs and does not come out of real need."

Al-Dalbahi also called on citizens to interact with this campaign through heading to official charities to donate, saying that the details of the campaign are available on its Twitter account (@antalsabb), or the website http://www.antalsabb.com.

Begging as a phenomenon is a real challenge to law enforcement agencies and citizens as the number of beggars is growing, and they have highly developed ways and tricks to obtain money, which has a negative impact on the civilized image of Saudi cities, aside from depriving the needy from donations.

There are more than 800 associations and charities officially registered in Saudi Arabia which rely on legitimate donations.