"Around 170,000 of those are Ethiopians, most of whom never acquired visas,
often taking perilous boat journeys across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen from
where they cross illegally into the kingdom with the help of smugglers."
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/03/migrant-dies-saudi-detention-centre-riot-201433135930166393.html
Migrant dies in Saudi detention centre riot
Officials say that one was killed and nine others injured when chaos broke
out at a deportation centre in Jeddah.
Last updated: 03 Mar 2014 15:21
A migrant has died and nine others have been wounded in a stampede during a
riot at a Saudi detention centre in the west of the kingdom, police have
said.
Police said on Monday that they had attempted to restore calm on Sunday
evening at al-Shumaisi detention centre in the Red Sea city of Jeddah where
undocumented migrants of various nationalities are held pending deportation.
Detainees "tried to cause chaos... resulting in damages to the centre,"
Mecca police spokesman Commander Ati al-Qurashi told AFP news agency.
He did not elaborate on the nature of the disturbances but said that police
"had to intervene" and that a migrant was killed and nine others wounded in
a "stampede".
The spokesman did not provide further details on the nationalities of the
casualties, the number of migrants held at the deportation centre, or the
progress made in their deportation procedures.
Frustration grows over Saudi deportations [File video]
The Saudi migrants sweep has sparked violence before. In November, at least
one Ethiopian and a Sudanese were killed in clashes between migrant workers
protesting the crackdown and vigilante Saudis in the capital Riyadh.
Similar clashes also broke out in Jeddah when police searched the area for
migrants.
The deportations are part of a Saudi campaign to expel undocumented foreign
workers after decades of lax immigration enforcement allowed migrants to
take many low-wage jobs that the kingdom's own citizens shunned. Saudi
authorities, grappling with growing unemployment, now want those jobs for
the kingdom's citizens.
Police have been cracking down on undocumented migrants since the
expiration in early November of a seven-month amnesty during which they had
to regularise their status or leave the country.
Nearly a million migrants from various countries took advantage of the
amnesty to leave voluntarily, while another four million were able to find
employers to sponsor them, a legal requirement in Saudi Arabia and other
Gulf states.
The Saudi government says it has deported more than a quarter-million
migrants since the government began enforcing its crackdown.
Around 170,000 of those are Ethiopians, most of whom never acquired visas,
often taking perilous boat journeys across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen from
where they cross illegally into the kingdom with the help of smugglers.
Human Rights Watch has criticised the conditions of detainees awaiting
deportation in the kingdom. The rights group last month said more than
12,000 Somali migrants were held under "appalling conditions" before they
were deported from Saudi Arabia.
The majority of foreign workers in the kingdom are from India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as Egypt and Yemen.
478
Source:
Agencies
Received on Thu Mar 06 2014 - 09:06:56 EST