RECENT POLICE ROUND-UPS HEIGHTEN ANXIETY AMONG

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JEDDAH 000328 SIPDIS SIPDIS RIYADH, PLEASE PASS TO DHAHRAN; DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP; DEPARTMENT FOR DRL/IRF; PARIS FOR ZEYA; LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/29/2016 TAGS: ELAB KCRM PHUM SA SOCI SUBJECT: RECENT POLICE ROUND-UPS HEIGHTEN ANXIETY AMONG JEDDAH'S FILIPINOS REF: A. JEDDAH 308 ¶B. RIYADH 2272 ¶C. RIYADH 2737 ¶D. RIYADH 3145 Classified By: Consul General Tatiana Gfoeller for reasons 1.4(b) and (d) ¶1. (U) SUMMARY. Anxiety is growing in Jeddah's large Filipino population following the round-up, arrest, and interrogation this month of hundreds of Filipinos in Jeddah in connection with a serious of high-profile crimes, including the discovery of human remains in a dumpster in Jeddah and the theft of 1.8 tons of gold from a mine outside Medina. Meanwhile, the recent arrests of six Filipino Christians in Jeddah and Riyadh, together with the persistent abuse of Filipino workers at the hands of their Saudi employers, have heightened concerns among Jeddah's Filipinos. END SUMMARY. HUNDREDS OF FILIPINOS ROUNDED UP IN JEDDAH POLICE RAIDS ¶2. (U) On April 4, a foreign worker apparently discovered body parts in a dumpster in al-Ghulail, a poor, industrial district in south Jeddah, and Saudi authorities, after conducting an investigation, determined that the parts comprised the mutilated and decomposing bodies of three Filipinos. The Jeddah police rounded up, arrested, and interrogated at least 52 Filipinos, and subsequently charged seven of them with murder. According to reports in the local media, Saudi authorities say that the accused murderers are members of an international gang involved in gambling and money laundering, and that their victims were, respectively, the head a rival gang engaged in similar activities, his assistant, and his driver. Reports in the Philippine media have asserted, however, that the Saudis are exaggerating the circumstances surrounding the slayings. ¶3. (U) Earlier this month, more than 100 Filipinos were reportedly rounded up in Jeddah for questioning in connection with an alleged gambling operation involving cockfights held on a farm outside the city. In addition, a reported 19 to 22 Filipino employees of the Saudi Arabian Mining Company were arrested this month for allegedly stealing 1.8 tons of gold from a mine near Medina. According to initial reports, the workers were sentenced to three years in prison, an extremely lenient sentence by Saudi standards. Subsequent reports have stated that they are still under investigation and have not yet been sentenced. The workers' contracts have been annulled, however, and they have been replaced with Saudis. FILIPINOS ROUTINELY BLAMED FOR CRIMES, SOMETIMES AS PRETEXT FOR RELIGIOUS HARASSMENT ¶4. (U) Saudi authorities routinely blame criminal activity on foreign workers in the Kingdom. Filipinos in Jeddah have been accused of involvement in such crimes such as gambling, smuggling, theft, prostitution, and murder. Media reports have stated that Saudi law-enforcement agencies conduct at least five raids a month targeting Jeddah's Filipino population, involving 1,200 officers from various agencies, including the police, the Jawazat (the passport authority),and the mutawwa (the religious police). Thus far in April alone, 30 Filipinos, including the seven accused of murdering their compatriots, have been charged with various crimes and will be tried by Saudi courts in accordance with shari'a law. ¶5. (C) Post previously reported on the March 20 arrest of a Filipino Christian in Jeddah on trumped-up drug charges and his subsequent two-week detention (reftel A). Embassy Riyadh has also reported on the March 31 and April 4 arrests of five Filipino Christians in Riyadh (reftels B and C). Three of the five have since been released, but two, a minister and a runaway maid, remain in detention (reftel D). ¶6. (C) One Consulate contact in Jeddah's Filipino community, a prominent Christian preacher, said Filipinos are "quite uncomfortable as the authorities are just picking up Filipinos without arrest warrants in the middle of the night." He said, further, that people are warning one another to "avoid gatherings as they are monitoring all of our movements." FILIPINO WORKERS KNOWINGLY SUBJECT THEMSELVES TO ABUSE IN JEDDAH 00000328 002 OF 002 ORDER TO SEND MONEY TO FAMILIES BACK HOME ¶7. (C) The Filipino Christian preacher discussed the treatment of Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia during an April 18 meeting with CG and Conoff. As a leader in Jeddah's Filipino community, the preacher said he knows many Filipino workers who are not paid regularly or in accordance with their contracts, and who are not afforded an annual trip back to the Philippines as required by Saudi law. He stressed, moreover, that it is common for Filipinos working as domestic employees to be physically or sexually abused by their employers. ¶8. (C) The preacher's ministry has worked to help Filipina maids escape difficult or dangerous circumstances in which they may find themselves. He recounted the story of one young Filipina maid who was sexually abused by her employer whenever his wife left the house. She is now living in a "safe house" while the preacher and the Philippines Consulate General in Jeddah work to get her an exit visa. When asked whether Filipinos "back home" hear about the mistreatment of their compatriots in Saudi Arabia, the preacher said, "Yes, but they still want to come. They still make good money here that they can send back to their families." He remarked that he, too, had been warned not to come to the Kingdom, but did so anyway. According to the preacher, the economic situation in the Philippines is bad enough that people are willing to assume the risks of working in Saudi Arabia in order to work for a few years, make money, and then return home. Many Filipino workers find, however, that they cannot return to their families when they are ready to leave Saudi Arabia; at times, their employment contracts are extended by their employers without their consent. ¶9. (U) Approximately 900,000 to 1 million Filipinos work in Saudi Arabia. Their remittances amounted to an estimated $11 million in 2005. This figure does not include money carried back to the Philippines by workers or transferred there through unlicensed services. Gfoeller