Muscat: The tightened vigil of the security authorities in Oman brought down the number of illegal infiltrators by 43.3 per cent in 2014.
The number of infiltrators who sneaked into the country stood at 4,884 in 2014, compared to 8,619 in 2013.
Brigadier Abdullah Al Hosni, the Director-General of the Operations at the Royal Oman Police (ROP), attributes the significant drop of the infiltrators to the intensifying patrols in areas where agents hide such as industrial areas and farms as well as the coastguard’s vigil.
Al Hosni added that the increasing social awareness among nationals in reporting cases of infiltration as well as an aversion to hiring them has contributed in the drop of the infiltrators.
Asked how the security authorities deal with the arrested infiltrators, Al Hosni stressed that Oman is committed to all the international treaties that ensure the infiltrators their rights and respect their humanity and dignity.
Pakistani nationals topped the list of infiltrators.
Most of the human traffickers use the northern and south coast of Batinah governorate to smuggle agents into Oman.
Drug trafficking and peddling are most crimes committed by the infiltrators, followed by robberies.
Furthermore, most of those infiltrators had not undergone medical checks, causing the spread of some fatal diseases.
Meanwhile, Oman has intensified its control on the absconding and illegal workers in the past three years, as the number of absconding workers has increased by more than 20 per cent every year. According to the National Centre of the Information and Statistics, there were 2,829,143 expatriates living in Oman at the end of March.
