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Riyadh: Considered as the biggest of its kind in five years, the Saudi passports anti-forgery squads in Jeddah have arrested a Pakistani involved in forgery operations worth more than 17 million Saudi riyals, (Dh17m) said a statement by the passports department released yesterday.
The expatriate had been monitored for the past three months, the statement added. Millions of foreigners come to Saudi Arabia every year to perform Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. Thousands of them stay to look for jobs. The Saudi authorities are exerting tremendous efforts to eliminate the number of overstayers and forgers. Saudi Arabia is sending back thousands of foreign illegal overstayers every year.
Thanks to the tightened measures implemented by the authorities the number of incidents linked to forgery has declined.
Documents
A large number of forged documents including Iqamas (residence permits), driving licences and renewal stickers of residence permits were found in the flat of the 22-year old Pakistani, the statement said. Forged stamps belonging to a number of government departments and public service corporations were found with the man, the statement added.
The statement said the fine art college graduate was arrested on a street in Jeddah after a secret police agent maintained friendship with him for the past few months. More than once the violator has succeeded in disappearing from the eyes of the police and changed his hideouts.
When the flat of the forger was inspected, more than 17,000 renewal stickers of residence permits of 1,000 and 500 Saudi riyal denominations, 126 fake residence permits ready for submission to illegal stayers, 8,116 residence permits under process and 213 driving licences were found, the statement said.
It added that 18 stamps belonging to the Makkah police department, the Ministry of Transportation, the passports department, the traffic department and a number of hospitals were also found in the forger's flat.
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