Saudis tackle foreign beggars

By Middle East correspondent Frank Gardner

Saudi Arabia is struggling to deal with a rising number of beggars, but the Muslim fondness for charity is making it hard to tackle the problem.

Saudi beggar facts

100,000 beggars on the streets

Some make up to $900 a week

Only 24% of arrested beggars are Saudi

Source: Arab News

The Jeddah-based Arab News newspaper says that an estimated 100,000 beggars - some of them as young as six years old - are operating in Saudi Arabia's cities, and most of them have come from other countries.

The paper says that they are part of a growing problem, and many of the beggars came to the country to perform the Muslim pilgrimage and then stayed on illegally.

The government has reportedly set up 12 anti-begging offices around the country, in an effort to persuade people to give to charity through organisations rather than on the streets.

Open-handed race

Official figures show that over 15,000 beggars are being arrested each year, but clearly that is not deterring this lucrative practice.

Begging can be a lucrative business

At almost any time of the day or night, African, Asian or Arab beggars are approaching cars at traffic lights, asking for money. Some are hideously deformed, some are healthy. But almost all are successful.

Arabia is the birthplace of the Islamic religion, which instructs all Muslims to donate 2.5% of their annual savings to charity.

Oil-rich Saudis are profusely generous people, and their country has gained an international reputation as an easy place in which to earn a living.

The editor of Arab News, Khaled Al-Maeena, told the BBC that some beggars are making the equivalent of up to $900 a week out of handouts from Saudis.

He says that every time the police try to take them off the streets, welfare organisations intervene on the beggar's behalf and they return to their trade.