Ethiopians riot in Saudi Arabia, Saudi national killed, 561 were arrested

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The immigrants gathered in Riyadh on Sunday before being transferred by bus to an assembly center. They are then to be deported, just a week after their seven-month amnesty expired.

Overnight, immigrants of mainly Ethiopian origin rioted in the impoverished Manfuhah neighborhood of the capital. Police said they intervened after the immigrants attacked Saudis and other foreign expats with rocks and knives. The Manfuhah district is home to many illegal immigrants, most of whom come from East Africa.

“The rioting left two people dead, one of them is Saudi while the nationality of the other is not known yet,” said a security official in a statement, without explaining how they were killed. A further 68 people were wounded and in the unrest and 560 suspects were detained, the statement added.
Four days earlier, an Ethiopian man was killed in the same area while fleeing police during a security raid on undocumented workers. Authorities said the man was trying to grab a gun.

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Riyadh: Hundreds of illegal migrants targeted in a Saudi nationwide crackdown turned themselves in on Sunday after security forces besieged a Riyadh neighbourhood where riots had killed two people.

Men, women and children lined up carrying their belongings to board police buses transferring them to an assembly centre before their deportation, a week after a seven-month amnesty expired.

Police said they intervened on Saturday following riots in the poor Manfuhah neighbourhood of the capital after foreigners attacked Saudis and other foreign expats with rocks and knives.

One Saudi and another person, whose nationality and identity remains unknown, were killed, said a police statement carried by the SPA state news agency. The Saudi is believed to have received a blow t

o his head.
Another 68 people — 28 Saudis and 40 foreigners — were injured and 561 were arrested.
According to Saudi daily Al Sharq, the dramatic events occurred shortly after a police team inspected the area looking for foreigners staying illegally in the kingdom.

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Saudi security authorities denied reports the number of people who were killed in the clashes in a neighbourhood in the capital Riyadh had increased.

“There have been only two people killed in the clashes, one a Saudi national and the other has not been formally identified yet,” the sources told local news site Sabq on Sunday morning.
Medical sources said that two of the injured at a hospital in Riyadh were in critical conditions, but did not elaborate, Sabq said.

The Saudi is believed to have received a blow to his head.

The Manfuhah district of Riyadh is home to many illegal migrants, mostly from east Africa.
On Sunday, police laid siege to the district while units from the National Guard and special forces were sent in.

The Ethiopian government said on Saturday it was repatriating citizens who had failed to meet the deadline of a seven-month amnesty, citing reports that an Ethiopian had been killed by police.
“They were trying to get them in the camp before repatriation and in that process… an Ethiopian has been killed with a police bullet, but we are verifying it,” foreign ministry spokesman Dina Mufti said in Addis Ababa.

Saudi police said on Saturday illegal migrants in Manfuhah have been given the chance to come forward and that accommodation has been made available while their repatriation is arranged.

On Monday, the authorities began rounding up thousands of illegal foreign workers following the expiry of a final amnesty for them to formalise their status.

Those considered to be illegal range from overstaying visitors and pilgrims seeking jobs to shop assistants and day labourers working for someone other than their sponsor.

Having an official sponsor is a legal requirement in Saudi Arabia and most other Gulf states.
Nearly a million migrants — Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis among them — took advantage of the amnesty to leave.

Another roughly four million were able to find employers to sponsor them, but in so doing virtually emptied the market of cheap freelance labour.

Expatriates account for a full nine million of the kingdom’s population of 27 million.
The lure of work, even in low-paid jobs as domestics or construction workers, has made the country a magnet for migrants from Asia as well as from poorer Arab states.

Despite its huge oil wealth, Saudi Arabia has a jobless rate of more than 12.5 per cent among its native population, a figure the government has long sought to cut.
Saudi economists have insisted that the departure of illegal workers
will benefit the largest Arab economy in the long run, but Saudis have already began to feel the pinch of a surging cost of labour because of a shortage of day workers.

Saudis and expatriates say that casual workers who used to queue in public squares for odd jobs have virtually disappeared since police began strictly enforcing tough labour laws.
The labour ministry said on Saturday it will continue to accept applications from undocumented foreigners seeking to legalise their status, but that they will be fined for the elapsed period since the amnesty ended on November 3.

dw.de