Cairo: Saudi authorities have urged citizens and expatriates to report illegal migrants and have warned them of tough penalties if they are found to be assisting them.
Transporting, employing, smuggling or covering up infiltrators is an offence punishable by two years in prison and a fine of SR100,000, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry Lt. Col. Talal Al Shalhoub said.
“The penalty also includes deportation of the violator if he is an expatriate. He will be named and shamed,” he said, according to Okaz newspaper. Vehicles used in transporting illegals will be confiscated after a court ruling, the official said.
“Anyone seeing a crowd of violators of residence, labour and border systems should immediately inform security personnel, who will confront those violators,” he added.
The warning comes a day after Saudi police announced arresting three Ethiopian infiltrators suspected of having set a massive bushfire that had raged for days.
Last week, the blaze erupted in a rugged area in Jabal Ghalameh in the Governorate of Tanuma in the region of Assir in south-western Saudi Arabia damaging large numbers of wild plants.
