Beakersful

What's the situation here? Legalities, issues, roots of the problem?

Water, beads, roses, flowers from the sellers. Hand out from dirty clothed kids and even some women. Last night I even had sellers offering big black wigs and V masks (the last of which didn't quite seem to fit the locale)

scot47

In KSA these are mainly illeggls, ie overstayers. People come on Pilgrim Visas and do not go home. Life as a street vendor in Saudi is better than starving in Burkina Faso !

In both Jeddah and Mecca, there are areas where a large percentage of the population are illegal. Some are 2nd or 3rd generatiopn. No right to be there so no tight to health care or to education. A real problem for the government.

Boomhauer

Since they are out in the open plying their wares as the OP states, I assume they are easily apprehended by the authorities?

Re. the areas around Jeddah and Mecca where illegals congregate; I am surprised the authorities haven't rounded them up and deported them, Saudi after all is not known for being humanitarian.

scot47

The areas are not "around" Jeddah and Mecca but are urban slums which have become npo-go areas for the Saudi police. Authorities check IDs on buses etc and illegals are then deported. The smart illegals do not use buses and stay in the areas where they live.

If you want to see what I am talking about go to an area like Hindawiya in Jeddah. If you drive into Jeddah, the urban motorway passes over sevral such districts.

The kids selling at traffic lights do it in groups and take off when they see a police car coming.

Some of the more despearte overstayers hand themselves into the authorities. They are held for a few days and then deported.

Beakersful

Where is the bar here though with the beggars? They are definitely dirtier than the sellers, who seem to put on an air of legality (perhaps excludin gthe water sellers.) Do we consider these 'refugees', the poor, illegals, or as the Daily Fail eloquently describes Romanians?

scot47

There is a strong Muslim tradition of giving money to beggars but at the same time I knew many locals who would give those obvious foreigners nothing.

typical

Sadly, they're not all illegals.

Boomhauer

Shia?

redShark

There are big mafias running children beggars business in KSA, those children are brought mainly from Africa or Yemen and other poor areas. They become a source of income for their families back home. A child with missing limbs is even better, a money spinner for his family specially during the pilgrimage season, that’s why many pretend to be so, see this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkCyJd_g4LU

Boomhauer

Who are the Mafia heads; Saudis , Yemenis or some other nationalities?

redShark

Mostly Saudis of Yemini or African origins. Normally from the same villages where those kids come from

Bored_in_Riyadh

I did see several young beggar boys at every traffic light junction near Granada Mall on Thursday , all of them were wearing football shirts. I made the wrong assumption it was QPR on an away match.

typical

Some; others are just poor, jobless Sunnis. There are more about than people expect.

Boomhauer

When I first when to College (USA), I was paired up with 3 Saudis in our Mech. Eng. class. 2 ofs the Saudi chaps were on full scholarship and stated that were it not for the scholarship, they could not afford to study in the US. They mentioned that people have this perception of all Saudis as living comfortably off Government stipends , but it isn't so.