Saudi Gazette report MAKKAH — A special security committee will begin reviewing the cases of the Burmese community members with a view to giving them residency permits (iqamas). The Burmese living in the Kingdom will be exempted from the iqama fees for four years as a measure to encourage them straighten out their legal status in the Kingdom, a local paper reported Wednesday quoting informed sources. The committee will receive the Burmese at a makeshift office in the Kudai car park. The sources said concerned government departments held a series of meetings recently to discuss corrective measures to deal with the large number of the Burmese expected to show up at the office. A committee comprising representatives from the concerned security departments has finished enumerating the Burmese in Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah, Taif and other towns and cities. The committee estimates that their number is well above 700,000. According to the committee, the Burmese in Makkah are concentrated mainly in the districts of Al-Misfalah, Al-Kadwah, Al-Zihour, Al-Khalediyyah, Kudai and Al-Kankariyah. Maj. Gen. Yahya Bin Sirour Al-Zaidi, former director of Makkah police, welcomed the move to correct the residency status of the Burmese in the Kingdom by giving them iqamas saying it would have a positive impact. “This step will enable the Burmese to find jobs and will cut down the rate of crimes they are committing especially in the light of the royal consent to turn Al-Misfalah district, which has the largest concentration of Burmese, into a place to accommodate pilgrims,” he said.
