'3,000 infiltrators from Saudi-Yemeni border areas daily'

Najran Governor Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah with Border Guard officers.jpg

Arab News
Tuesday, February 26, 2013

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The number of infiltrators into Saudi territories from the Saudi-Yemeni border has been estimated at 3,000 per day, most of them Yemeni and Somali, according to Saudi border guard sources.

The sources said that infiltration is a normal phenomenon and most of the infiltrators come for work. They are usually stopped, interrogated and then repatriated but those who flee are considered outlaws and chased off, the sources said.

The outlaws are either smugglers of weapons and narcotics or terrorists and are therefore dealt with decisively and forcefully, the sources said.

Ethiopians who infiltrated into the southern parts of the Kingdom feel lonely and fearful due to their ignorance of the nature of the region and the language, the Saudi Arabic accent in particular. Ethiopians are easily identified and, adamant that they will eventually be caught, practice robberies and make low-quality liquor which causes death due to its manufacturing in an unhealthy environment, the sources said.

The sources however added that the media exaggerates some of the incidents.
The situation in the region is fully stable but differences emerge when the African infiltrators discover that the person responsible for smuggling them into Saudi territory does so in exchange for $ 200 and escapes with the money which, in turn, forces them to practice robberies or to attack by-passers, arrivals from the southern region told Arab News.

Africans coming from Yemen into Saudi territory believe that bringing in big quantities of liquor or narcotics would be welcomed among Saudi youth but later discover that those who reported on the infiltrators are Saudis themselves, sources at the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (PVPV) said.

Meanwhile, Saudi security bodies are conducting an all-out crackdown on locations from where African infiltrators are coming in and arresting traffickers, most of them Yemeni. They are dealt with using force if they use weapons against Saudi security forces, sources at the Ministry of Interior said. They added that all information on the infiltrators is accurate and the situation is normal and under control.

Meanwhile Yemeni sources have said that the infiltrators are succeeding in pouring in with the help of people within the borders but that there is a high-level security coordination between Riyadh and Sanaa to combat the infiltrators, Yemeni sources said.

The Yemeni border guards have recently uncovered boats loaded with Iranian weapons, in addition to big quantities of narcotics and counterfeit dollars which clearly indicated an Iranian role in Yemeni political and economic instability, the sources said.

One Somali infiltrator said he came from Somalia based on promises given smugglers who pledged to help them get from Somalia to Yemen then to Saudi Arabia. Sadly, these people have found that they can neither go back to Somalia nor enter into Saudi Arabia due to security barriers and intensive security campaigns, he said.

Saudi security bodies have opened three centers to host and shelter infiltrators for humanitarian purposes. Some of them are subject to interrogation and repatriation but others reject going back to their country of origin by refusing to say where they came from or what their nationalities were.

Saudi border guards patrols meanwhile found weapon traffickers at the Saudi-Yemen border and seized 91 pistols and 11 kalashnikov machine guns, Commander of Border Guards at Asir Region Maj-Gen Saud Al-Noumsi said.

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