Haj Ministry reasserts no Umrah pilgrim can stay to perform Haj

The Ministry of Haj has rejected requests by more than 200 Umrah companies to extend the visas for the people now in Makkah and Madinah to perform Haj, said Deputy Minister Hatim Qadi. In an interview with Arab News, Qadi said, “the instructions and regulations of the ministry are clear and unequivocal in this regard: No Umrah visa can be extended and they cannot stay to perform Haj. Anyone who stays until the end of the Haj will be violating the regulations, and will be penalized accordingly. The operational license of the company responsible for that will be revoked for a year.” He added: “Until Monday, there were 15,000 umrah pilgrims in Makkah and Madinah, down from 52,000 people last week. This is a sure sign that the umrah companies are keen to see these people leave Saudi Arabia for their countries and that they follow up and comply with the procedures in their business.” Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar has impressed upon the monitoring and follow-up committees to make sure that no Umrah pilgrim remains at the two holy cities. “I think that by the end of this week all remaining umrah pilgrims will have left Saudi Arabia for their countries,” Qadi said. “Note that during the past three days we began to see groups of people coming to perform the Haj. The total number of the people who arrived so far is 300, who came mostly from India. The majority of them are elderly pensioners.” Arab News