Saudi Arabia expelling illegal immigrants

I’m fascinated by what’s going on in Saudi Arabia right now.

The kingdom of Saud apparently is suffering from unemployment. Many immigrants from the region are there illegally, and working. Tons of folks — 300,000 Sudanese alone, and thousands of Yemenis.

So the Saudis are giving them the boot — 28,000 in three days. Police killed an Ethiopian fellow who resisted arrest.

I’m getting all this from al-bab.com, a blog billing itself as “an open door to the Arab world” — which is well worth reading. Terrific blog.

Yemen, SA’s neighbor and closest cheap labor source, is worrying that remittances will drop, according to al-bab.com.

Immigrant street sweepers in one Saudi town struck in protest and Saudi officials took up their brooms in a symbolic act. Meanwhile, sweepers have been issued IDs to avoid them getting scooped up and sent home.

Yemen, meanwhile, has been expelling northern Africans, Ethiopians mainly, al-bab.com reports. These folks apparently going through Yemen headed to Saudi Arabia but couldn’t get in, so they stayed. Now Yemen is sending them home.

It’s all so reminiscent.