According to Saudi security officials over 15,000 illegal migrants, among whom traffickers and hardened criminals were stopped while attempting to cross over onto Saudi Arabia through Yemen porous northern region in the past 45 days.
Under such data about 2500 would have ventured to outsmart both Yemen and Saudi Arabia border guards in order to quietly enter the kingdom. While of course the Saudi authorities have always focused their attention on illegal immigration, it is more the idea of terror trafficking which now troubles them.
Because Yemen has become somewhat of a terror hub, a haven of sort for Islamic radicals due to its lasting security black-hole and weak state institutions, many wannabe terrorists and well-known suspected radicals has chosen since 2011 to migrate to Yemen, keen to join al-Qaeda Yemen, the most dangerous terror cells in the region. With terrorists pouring in to Yemen to train, Saudi Arabia fears radical will attempt to make the journey back home in view of carrying out against the royal family or other state officials.
In view of such a threat, the Saudi authorities have been keen to tighten security at its border with Yemen.
Confirming experts” warnings of terror migration and other related trafficking, Brig. Gen. Abdullah Mahfouth, spokesman for the border guards in the south-western province of Jazan noted in a statement to the press that over the past 30 days alone, 250 weapons and hundreds of pounds (kilos) of narcotics had been seized.
Terror observers have alleged that al-Qaeda would resort to drug trafficking and other alternative trades to palliate to a global crackdown against its finances.