MD AL-SULAMI & IBRAHIM NAFFEE
Jeddah police arrested 20 illegal workers from Ethiopia for creating chaos and blocking traffic on a key artery on Thursday morning.
Police said the workers blocked traffic on King Fahd Road in Sharafiyah district, close to Mahmoud Saeed (Oasis Mall).
Lt. Nawaf Al-Bouq, Jeddah police spokesman, said the police received first reports about the troublemakers at 8:30 a.m.
The workers tried to prevent the police from reaching the scene. The miscreants, carrying sticks and stones, were seen arguing with angry motorists.
Al-Bouq said the Ethiopians had incited other workers to join them.
ll the instigators were arrested and transferred to the Kandara police station in preparation for their referral to the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution for further interrogation, he said.
Al-Bouq said most of the troublemakers had not applied to rectify their status during the amnesty period that ended on Nov. 3 and many did not have passports.
Violators of residency regulations must follow up with their respective consulates to check the status of their travel and departure arrangements, he said.
Several residents said the area’s roads were blocked and that they were afraid because of the tense standoff.
“I could not go to work because of the trouble created by the Ethiopians. I was scared,” Ali Saad, a Yemeni resident who lives in Sharafiya, told Arab News.
“It is hard to describe what happened. All the people who live there were obviously very scared,” said Yousef Abdul Aziz, a Saudi resident.
“The police arrested the illegal expats before they could cause heavy damage,” said Abdul Rahman Salem, a Yemeni resident. “The police are still patrolling the district.”
Zenebe K. Korcho, the Ethiopian consul general, said the situation was a “result of the frustration and despair of Ethiopians who have been waiting for months to benefit from the amnesty but ended up in the streets.”
He said the area was “calm and clear” when an Ethiopian consular team arrived.
“After the road blockade incident on Thursday, I met with Passport Department officials to expedite the process of repatriation and also issue documents showing that some applicants were still waiting for their applications to be processed.” Korcho reiterated that all Ethiopian nationals should respect and comply with Saudi laws.
A security source blamed the consulates for not providing these workers with temporary travel documents so that they could go home. Many of the workers had either entered the country illegally or overstayed their Umrah visas, the source said.
With input from
• Irfan Mohammed and Mohannad Sharawi
Source: ArabNews
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