Saudi Tourists Targeted in Geneva

The following story comes from the French blog François Desouche, and concerns some of the strange situations which begin to occur when large numbers of different immigrants live together in a society which is alien to them.

I suppose in some respects this situation is the ultimate expression of diversity; immigrant criminals, largely North Africans, taking opportunites and preying on foreign tourists.

The translation is my own, and may contain some mistakes:

A report by the television channel Al-Arabiya, the second largest in the Arab world after Al-Jazeera, has caused turmoil in the Gulf. He denounced the vulnerability of the victims who were Arab tourists in Geneva.

The report shows evidence of a Saudi family in Switzerland one member of whom was assaulted with an iron bar. The victim was hospitalized, he does not appear in the video, but his brother is interviewed in the corridors of the hospital. The incident would have occurred a week ago or so. The journalists of Al-Arabiya speak of an increase in attacks targeting the Saudis, and assigns them to nationals of the Maghreb, the Balkans or the Caucasus. Until today, the Geneva police claimed to be unaware of the case.

As a first step, the police had indicated that there was only one case of a Saudi victim of theft in Geneva in recent weeks. But Monday, she confirmed the information that a 48-year-old Saudi was indeed assaulted in Geneva three weeks ago. He was found unconscious in the streets of the city.

At the antenna of Radio Suisse Romande, the Consul General of Saudi Arabia in Geneva has asked the city authorities to show more severity against offenders.

If the Swiss authorities won't protect their own people and their own famously peaceful and ordered society by not importing these criminals in the first place, or kicking them out when they inevitably misbehave, what makes the Saudi consul confident that the safety of tourists, Arab or otherwise, matters to them?

Frankly, if Saudi tourists feel so vulnerable in Geneva they can simply go somewhere else; the residents of that city don't necessarily have that choice, and deserve a greater say in their own future.