Hundreds of illegal expats arrested in Riyadh and EP

The Riyadh police arrested 700 illegal residents including 12 wanted men and a group of bootleggers in a major crackdown in Al-Unooz district in the capital on Wednesday.
The police had started raiding neighborhoods in Thulaimi, Amal, Rail and Hara districts on Monday.
The raid on Wednesday lasted for 24 hours in an old industrial area with many illegal workers.
According to the police, those arrested included runaways, workers with forged documents and others facing criminal charges from Yemen, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. About 200 vegetable and fruit vendors were also arrested, the police said.
Prior to the raid, the police cordoned off the area to facilitate inspections and prevent suspects from running away.
The police arrested 9,000 illegal workers during other raids in the Hai Al-Wazarah area, mainly Asians from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
The police also raided several shops and restaurants and arrested Egyptian, Indian, Sudanese and Pakistani workers.
The operations are being carried out on the orders of Riyadh Gov. Prince Khaled bin Bandar and Deputy Gov. Prince Turki bin Abdullah.
The police have been conducting raids in cooperation with various security and government agencies including the Ministry of Commerce, Passports Department and the Saudi Red Crescent Authority.
In the Eastern Province, the police arrested 19,425 violators over the past three months, said Col. Ziad Al-Ruqaiti of the Eastern Province police.
Al-Ruqaiti said that various agencies were working to track down and arrest labor law violators across the province.
“The local police department is seeking everyone’s cooperation in reporting violators to stop this phenomenon,” he said.
Two weeks ago, the Eastern Province police announced that they arrested 1,900 labor law violators in a single week.