392 beggars held in two months in Saudi

Saudi Arabia has arrested 392 beggars over the past two months within an extensive police drive to curb the phenomenon in the world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi newspapers reported on Monday.

The Saudi and expatriate beggars were arrested on the street and in raids on suspected houses in the eastern towns of Dammam and Khobar, they said.

“Raids on suspected houses resulted in the arrest of 45 men, women and children while the rest were seized on the street,” the papers quoted a police statement as saying.

“The campaign will be intensified in the next days as this phenomenon increases during Ramadan and Eid.”

Saudi Arabia, which controls around a quarter of the world’s oil wealth, has a population of nearly 26 million, including about seven million expatriates.

Like other Gulf oil producers, begging is strictly banned in the kingdom.

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