The Religious Policeman

Punish the Innocent, ignore the Guilty


Travel Agency Employees Still in Detention
M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan, Arab News Staff

RIYADH, 13 March 2004 ­— Four travel agency employees are still being detained amid hopes in the travel industry that the government will announce a grace period for Saudization of the business next week.

Most of the workers arrested in raids earlier this week have been released piecemeal. The remaining four, currently languishing in deportation cell No. 2 in Riyadh, say they are spending sleepless nights in unhygienic conditions. “I and the remaining four were picked up from different travel agencies,” said Mohammed Banaras Khan of Trans Continent Agency, who was released Wednesday night after his sponsor obtained an order from the governorate.

Their crime? Their employers had not complied with the Saudization directives, requiring them to employ more Saudis and less foreigners. So the authorities put them, not the Saudi owners, in jail, and shaved their heads as part of the service. That's because they're Third World foreigners. We wouldn't treat our own countrymen like that.