Riyadh: Saudi Arabia arrested 50,000 people trying to illegally enter the kingdom from Yemen during the last three months, the country’s Border Guard spokesman Mohammad Al Ghamdi said Wednesday.
Most of those caught are Yemenis looking for jobs and fleeing the violence in their own country, he said in a phone interview. Saudi guards detained 286,000 trying to cross the southern border in 2014, he said.
Saudi Arabia shares a 1,100 mile border with Yemen, where fighting between Al Houthi fighters and forces loyal to Saudi-backed President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi threatens to escalate into civil war. The erosion of government authority has already allowed Al Qaida to take root in Yemen and use it as a base for attacks against the world’s largest oil supplier.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said on Monday that Gulf countries will take “necessary measures to protect the region” from Al Houthis if peace talks fail. Saudi Arabia has agreed to host all Yemeni factions for negotiations in an effort to end the fighting.
