Muscat: A slight drop in arrest of infiltrators was recorded in 2010 but Royal Oman Police (ROP) maintain that country needs to be vigilant as the illegal intruders pose a risk to Oman’s security.
“Last year 8,769 foreigners were deported out of the country, against 10,520 in 2009,” Sergeant Hamoud Al Zaidi, spokesperson for the ROP, revealed. He said that besides infiltrators, those deported also included violators of the country’s labour laws.
Al Zaidi said the stability and security in Oman tempted people from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and some Arab countries to try and enter illegally.
“Mostly people enter Oman illegally in search of employment and material gains but the security risk to the country to this phenomenon cannot be ignored,” he pointed out.
In the middle of the last decade, attempts to smuggle gullible poor people from the Indian sub-continent increased significantly, especially through the sea route via Iran.
Human traffickers dupe poor people, smuggle them by land into Iran from the
Pakistan border, bring them in the hundreds by boat, and offload them at night on the long coastline on the north of Oman. Oman, Pakistan and Iran have made joint efforts to counter the human trafficking.
With tighter vigilance, citizens on the northern coastal area have been helping the authorities, the number of infiltrators via the sea route has dropped drastically in the past two years. The strict vigil by the authorities includes increased patrolling by the sea route as well as the aerial route.
Al Zaidi added that some of the infiltrators, by sea or land, had also been used to smuggle drugs into the country. He urged residents to report any suspicious activities.
