JEDDAH: Deserted houses destroyed by last year's Wednesday floods in Quwaizah were used as hideouts and shelters for suspicious persons and convicts – until patrolmen from Makkah Region's Passports Department nabbed them Tuesday night, authorities said. The action came after teams from the Criminal Investigations Department noticed dozens of strangers frequenting the area and learned that some of them were staying with their families in the houses with no doors and windows, according to authorities. Security men also noticed a number of beggars and people who falsely claimed to have disabilities were living in more than 27 houses, authorities said. At 1.00 A.M., Passports Department forces moved to the locations, which were kept under surveillance, and surrounded the area to prevent people from escaping, according to authorities. In the first house, authorities found 19 Somali nationals who were violators of regulations. They admitted that they were guests of a fellow countryman and paid a monthly amount in return for their stay, authorities said. The campaign caught seven Ethiopian nationals in another house; one man tried to escape by jumping over the walls and roofs of the ramshackle houses, but he was quickly apprehended, according to authorities. Several other people tried to flee in the moments before security men moved in, authorities said, but Passports Department personnel, who had sealed off the area, arrested them and took them into waiting buses.
