Kiwis quit after hostage drama

By BRIDGET CARTER

Paul Harrison is making the sort of money he can only dream about earning in New Zealand.

But after a weekend hostage ordeal in which an unknown number of civilians were killed and around 30 taken hostage by al Qaeda terrorists, New Zealanders like him are leaving Saudi Arabia to come home.

Mr Harrison is among 60 New Zealanders living in the oil-producing city of Khobar and was only 5km away from where terrorists cut the throats of hostages. They had invaded a luxury compound and shot Westerners working for oil companies.

He heard the gunfire, the helicopters of the Saudi forces who rescued hostages, and later the horror stories of people inside the compound during the 25-hour stand-off.

Now the 35-year-old from Christchurch is thinking of leaving Saudi Arabia. Others have already decided to come home.

"A number of people I know have gone and quit their jobs already," he said.

Mr Robinson moved to Khobar five years ago where he now lives with his wife and young children doing aircraft work with a British company on behalf of the Saudi Arabian defence force.

At first there were few security fears among the expat community.

But after a year of shootings and bombings roadblocks have been installed and security alerts are frequent.

"This is pretty serious for us. It has always been happening in Riyadh."

Mr Harrison said that in Khobar people had been confined to their compounds and children had been kept home from school. Not only that, but it seemed some of the militants involved in the shooting had not been caught.

"It was certainly a pretty scary thought driving home on the day. There was quite a bit of confusion over what was going on."

The financial rewards for working in Saudi Arabia were "quite phenomenal", he said.

"The amount of money I am currently on, it is going to be a pretty big decision to leave and one I don't want to make too quickly."

It was the reason most New Zealanders went to work there, including nurses, who earned around NZ$80,000 a year.

One nursing agency said it knew of 100 New Zealanders nursing there.

But Terry Denton, who lives in Riyadh, said he knew people who had thought enough was enough and were going home.

The 39-year-old, who has been there for just over a year, works for a large dairy company and his wife is eight months pregnant so he is not in a position to leave.

"The lifestyle has changed. The good old days of enjoying what Saudi Arabia has to offer outside the compounds has all gone," he said.

"This was to be our expat dream job that would set us up for life."

John Palalagi, a 30-year-old business analyst in Riyadh, said his contract was up for renewal in July. He would not be staying.

Every attack each week was "making me nervous".

"Although you have more chance of dying in a car accident on the way to work - there is really bad driving on the road here - I am still worried about a terrorist attack."