MUSCAT — Expatriates violating residency laws pose a problem for the Omani authorities and human traffickers add to their woes by exploiting the Sultanate's long coast to smuggle vulnerable poor Asians into the country. “The gravity of the infiltration is so serious that we need every possible agency's help to deal with the phenomena,” a spokesman for the Royal Oman Police's (ROP) Public Relations Department was quoted by Gulf News as saying. He said that the statistics compiled by the ROP are an indication of how serious the problem is. The spokesman revealed that 2,947 infiltrators were arrested in the first quarter of this year. “Almost equal numbers (2576) were deported back to their country during the same period,” he added. The ROP are helped in the campaign against infiltrators by the Royal Navy of Oman (RNO), the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO), the military and the other security agencies as well as the Manpower Ministry. “We have been regularly arresting illegal nationals from different countries across Oman,” he said. He stressed that 2,576 were deported after due legal process that also included court proceedings and verification of each deportees' nationality with their respective embassies. “All conventions and international regulations are followed before an individual is deported to his/her home country,” he reiterated. Recently, he said that boats loaded with infiltrators were caught along the northern coast but did not elaborate. “We have also nabbed human traffickers who facilitate this illegal passage into Oman for so many people,” he added. The spokesman also said that infiltrators pose social as well as economic risks to the country. “We have had a large number of crimes, including theft and drug trafficking, recorded against illegal residents,” he revealed. The ROP, he said, had made a shelter to house the large number of infiltrators as well as labour law violators. “We respect an individual's dignity and human rights; food and drinks are provided to these infiltrators at the shelter until they are deported to their respective home country.” For almost a decade the problem of infiltrators has been growing despite extensive efforts. In 2005, when the problem was at its peak, a welfare officer at the Pakistani Embassy in Muscat told Gulf News that human traffickers were exploiting poor and needy people in his country by sending them by boat to the Gulf region. Under this modus operandi, human traffickers take the people by foot to Iran and from there they by boat. After tripartite efforts between Oman, Iran and Pakistan the trafficking seemed to have slowed down but lately the ROP has reported that it has increased. — Agencies
