Over 1 million poverty stricken immigrants in Saudi Arabia

[Richard Akindele]

SOME Nigerian women arrive in Saudi Arabia to beg, steal, and prostitute, according a report in the Daily Independent of Nigeria.



The Daily Independent said it had learnt that there were over one million Nigerians in Saudi Arabia, who are mostly illegal immigrants. They reportedly live and work under secret arrangements that must never be discovered by the no-nonsense Saudi police, who are alert and quick to fish out illegal immigrants and repatriate them.

"We have more Nigerian women than men here in Saudi," said Alhaji Maidala, a Nigerian who has legal resident papers.


"The Saudi government repatriates thousands of Nigerians every year, yet they have not even touched one quarter of them. They are all over, working secretly for families, some engage in the worst kinds of prostitution, while others steal from the Arabs," he added.

Some of the Nigerians are also reported to be desperate, with the unemployed ending up scavenging from dustbins for either food, or tins, which they resell to tin recycling companies.


"They don't have good jobs in most cases except during the Haj or Umrah periods when they are able to move around towns without much hindrance. That's when they come out to sell local Nigerian dishes to pilgrims. Even the food they cook is not always hygienic for consumption as most of these women go to factories to collect expired food items like frozen chickens and so on to sell to unsuspecting pilgrims," Maidala said.

Source : The Independent