Saudi Arabia arrests nearly 20,000 illegal immigrants
Last Updated on December 17, 2024 6:57 am
A total of 19,831 illegal immigrants have been arrested in a security operation in the Middle Eastern country of Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi Interior Ministry said in a statement on Saturday (December 14) that the country’s security forces have arrested the immigrants in a raid in the past week.
Gulf News reported that the country’s law enforcement agencies have arrested 19,831 immigrants in Saudi Arabia on charges of violating housing, labor and border security laws.
The immigrants were arrested in raids in different parts of Saudi Arabia from December 5 to 27. They were arrested as part of a nationwide security operation.
The statement said that among those arrested, 11,358 were arrested for violating the housing law, 4,994 for violating the border security law, and 3,479 for violating the labor law. The country’s various security forces and government agencies conducted joint raids and arrested the immigrants.
The ministry said in a statement that 1,303 people were arrested while trying to illegally cross the border into Saudi Arabia. The majority of them were Yemeni and Ethiopian nationals. Of those arrested, 60 percent were Ethiopian, 38 percent were Yemeni, and 2 percent were citizens of other countries. In addition, 173 expatriates were arrested for trying to leave Saudi Arabia illegally.
At the same time, 25 people living in Saudi Arabia were also arrested for transporting and harboring violators of housing and work regulations. Legal action is currently underway against 27,540 expatriates in the country. Of these, 24,180 are men and 2,730 are women.
The ministry said in a statement that steps are being taken to repatriate the arrested. Of the arrested expatriates, 19,258 have been sent to their respective diplomatic missions to collect the necessary travel documents before being sent back to their home countries. At the same time, 9,893 of those arrested have already been repatriated from Saudi Arabia to their respective countries.
Anyone who tries to help people enter the Middle Eastern country illegally can be sentenced to 15 years in prison and a fine of 1 million Saudi riyals. The Saudi Interior Ministry has repeatedly warned about this.
The desert country of Saudi Arabia is currently home to about 34.8 million people. Millions of migrant workers from different countries around the world work in Saudi Arabia. Local media in Saudi Arabia regularly report on ongoing crackdowns and arrests of illegal immigrants in the country.