Two Killed as Police Clash With Foreigners

Sammyboy RSS Feed · #1 10-11-2013, 11:50 PM

An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-1...riyadh-1-.html

Two Killed as Saudi Police Clash With Foreigners in Riyadh

By Glen Carey - Nov 10, 2013 8:54 PM GMT+0800

Clashes between Saudi police and foreign nationals in Riyadh killed two people, including a Saudi citizen, as the government implements a nationwide crackdown on undocumented workers.

Police arrested 561 people during the riots that erupted in Manfouha in south Riyadh, the official Saudi Press Agencyreported, citing a police statement. The violence left 68 injured and damaged 104 cars, the news service reported.

The clashes in the narrow streets of Manfouha, a neighborhood with a large Ethiopian population, came as authorities implemented measures from Nov. 4 against violators of the kingdom’s labor laws. Police arrested 16,000 people by the end of the second day of the crackdown as they fanned out across the cities, raiding shops and construction sites, al-Riyadh newspaper reported on Nov. 7.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s biggest economy, is implementing measures against illegal workers as it pushes to create more jobs for its citizens and stave off unrest. The kingdom has made job creation a priority after popular unrest toppled leaders across the Middle East starting in 2011. The jobless rate for Saudi workers is about 12 percent, according to official figures.

The Tadawul All Share Index declined 0.2 percent to 8,248 at the 3:30 p.m. close in Riyadh. The Arab world’s biggest exchange has advanced 21 percent this year.
‘Leaving Today’

Along al-Faryan Street in Manfouha today, hundreds of East Africans gathered around a traffic light, some sitting on their over-packed suitcases, as Saudi police watched from outside their vehicles, which blocked the main intersection. Ambulances and buses were parked along side the road.
“I am leaving today,” Abdullah Ibrahim, a 25-year-old Ethiopian, said. “I don’t have a residency permit and need to leave.” Girma Makonnen, fearing the crackdown and the violence last night, is also trying to depart after seven years working in the kingdom.

In Manfouha, some shop signs are written in Amharic, the language spoken in Ethiopia, along side Arabic. On the back streets, rundown buildings, with plastic water tanks and old air conditioners hanging from cracked walls, stand next to lots with collapsed buildings. The neighborhood provides a sharp contrast to the glass office towers in other parts of the city.
Foreign Workers

A video posted on YouTube showed

another with sticks and clubs during the crackdown and others running down a street in the neighborhood.

showed a convoy of police vehicles responding to the riots. The authenticity of the videos couldn’t be verified.
Saudi Arabia has attracted foreign workers, some sneaking illegally across the border from Yemen, as it invests its oil wealth to build roads, airports and new industrial cities. The kingdom was the third-biggest global provider of worker remittances after the U.S. and Russia, sending $29.5 billion in 2012, according to World Bank data.

Economic growth is forecast to slow to 4.2 percent this year, from 5.1 percent last year and 8.6 percent in 2011, according to a Bloomberg survey of 20 analysts.

The Saudi Press Agency didn’t identify the nationality of the second person killed in the clashes. Police shot and killed one Ethiopian man earlier this week as he tried to grab a policeman’s weapon during a raid, the Jeddah-based Arab Newsnewspaper reported on Nov. 8.

Authorities have set up a place to house violators of the visa laws in Manfouha should they surrender voluntarily, the Saudi Press Agency said, citing a separate police statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Glen Carey in Riyadh at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at [email protected]

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