The mess is because foreign workers on which many
businesses rely are fleeing, have gone into hiding or are under arrest
amid a crackdown launched Nov. 4 targeting the kingdom's 9 million
migrant laborers. Decades of lax immigration enforcement allowed
migrants to take low-wage manual, clerical and service jobs that the
kingdom's own citizens shunned for better paying, more comfortable work.
Now,
authorities say booting out migrant workers will open more jobs for
citizens, at a time when unemployment among Saudis is running at 12.1
percent as of the end of last year, according to the International
Monetary Fund. But the nationalist fervor driving the crackdown risks
making migrant workers vulnerable to vigilante attacks by Saudis fed up
with the seemingly endless stream of foreigners in their country.
The
majority of workers hail from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia
and the Philippines, as well as Egypt and Yemen. Others, mostly from
east Africa, have 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.
Since the
Saudi government began issuing warnings earlier this year, hundreds of
thousands of foreign workers have been deported, though some were able
to avoid arrest by getting proper visas in an amnesty program. That
amnesty ended last week, and some 33,000 people have since been placed
behind bars. Others have gone into hiding.
With fewer people to do
the job, the state-backed Saudi Gazette reported that 20,000 schools
are without janitors. Others are without school bus drivers. Garbage
became so noticeable around the mosque housing the Prophet Muhammad's
tomb that a top city official in Medina helped sweep the streets, the
state-backed Arab News website reported.
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In this Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 photo, Ethiopians gather as they wait to be repatriated in Manfouha …
About
40 percent of small construction firms in the kingdom also have stopped
work because their foreign workers couldn't get proper visas in time,
Khalaf al-Otaibi, president of the World Federation of Trade, Industry
and Economics in the Middle East, told Arab News.
Saudis say
dozens of businesses like bakeries, supermarkets, gas stations and cafes
are now closed. They say prices have also soared for services from
mechanics, plumbers and electricians.
Adam Coogle, a Middle East
researcher for Human Rights Watch, told The Associated Press that if the
kingdom wants to be serious about the problem, authorities should look
at the labor laws and not at the workers. Saudi Arabia's sponsorship
system, under which foreign laborers work in the kingdom, gives
employers say over whether or not a foreigner can leave the country or
change jobs, forcing many into illegal employment.
"The entire system by which Saudi Arabia regulates foreign labor is failing," he said.
The
owner of a multi-million dollar construction company in the Saudi
capital, Riyadh, said he had to halt all of his projects. He told the AP
he was not the legal sponsor of most of his laborers but that they made
more money working as freelance hires.
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In this Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 photo, Ethiopians gather as they wait to be repatriated in Manfouha …
"These
people have worked in this country and their blood is in the stones and
buildings," he said, speaking anonymously for fear of government
reprisal. "You cannot just, like that, force them out."
Despite
feeling the loss of the everyday work the foreign laborers provided,
Saudis largely have cheered on the police. Residents have taken matters
into their own hands on several occasions, despite police calling on the
public not to make citizen arrests.
Over the weekend, Saudi
residents of Riyadh's poor Manfouha neighborhood fought with Ethiopians,
detaining some, until police arrived more than two hours later. Video
emerged of a crowd of Saudis knocking on the door of an Ethiopian man's
house, then dragging him out and beating him in the street. A Saudi and a
migrant were killed and dozens wounded in the clashes.
The
violence began when east Africans protesting the crackdown barricaded
themselves in the narrow streets of Manfouha, throwing stones,
threatening people with knives and damaging cars. Days earlier, an
Ethiopian man was killed by police chasing down migrants.
Violence
broke out again days later in the same neighborhood, and a Sudanese man
was killed in clashes Wednesday. In the Red Sea coastal city of Jiddah
in the poor al-Azaziya neighborhood, clashes also broke out when police
combed the area for migrants.
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In this Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 photo, Saudi security forces watch Ethiopians gather as they wait t …
"This
is not racism or a lack of respect for diversity, but you cannot
imagine how much negative comes from these groups instead of positive.
These people, every day, cause problems," said Jiddah resident Abdulaziz
al-Qahtani, who posted online video from the Riyadh clashes that he
said a friend took.
Since the weekend clashes, Saudi officials say
23,000 Ethiopians, including women and children, have turned themselves
in to the police. Authorities say most had no documentation of ever
entering the kingdom and are being held in temporary housing ahead of
deportation.
Ethiopia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that
officials in Addis Ababa sought an explanation from Saudi Arabia's envoy
over the "mistreatment" of Ethiopians in the kingdom. Workers
from neighboring Yemen also face harassment. Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize
Laureate Tawakkol Karman posted a picture last week on her Facebook page
of what appeared to be a Saudi man in his car grabbing hold of a Yemeni
man for a police officer.
Saudi columnist Abdul-Rahman al-Rashed
cautioned Saudis to remember that without "a strong state and oil
revenues" they too may have emigrated in search of work. "Those
deprived of the chance of a proper life can understand the feeling of
those wanting to seek a better life," he wrote in the Asharq al-Awsat
newspaper.
___
Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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