JEDDAH, 11 November 2004 — Jeddah international airport was hit by chaos as minor altercations between passengers and representatives of Umrah companies added to the discomfort of overcrowding here as the holy month of Ramadan draws to an end.
The mix of passengers and pilgrims and the aggression of the milling group of representatives of Umrah companies who seek to examine the passports of every passenger exiting from immigration and customs and the reluctance of many to hand over their documents leads to numerous outbursts.
Security officers on duty at the arrival point add to the confusion as they repeatedly tell these representatives to make space. The representatives oblige briefly only to push their way back into the area for the scene to be repeated.
The problem starts only when the pilgrim comes out along with the other passengers not dressed in ihram. The representatives call out names and rush about in search of the pilgrims, or simply call out to their colleagues if they have identified some from another group.
It is not that all passengers, or those who have come to receive them, have to endure this. But when flights get bunched and the passengers are from different nations, especially from South and Southeast Asia, the wait is long and tiring for everybody.
Increased security measures in place create crowds at the check-in desks, adding to the confusion.
Families, representatives of car rentals and travel agencies and prowling freelance taxi drivers crowd the cordoned-off passenger exit. The Umrah firm representatives have only the small corridor to operate from and pick up their pilgrims from their crowd.
Umrah passengers often make life difficult for these representatives by refusing to show their documents because they have been told in their home country not to part with them.
An Egyptian pilgrim Jalal Abdul Wahab complained that there were no company offices at the airport and when someone demands your documents it comes as a shock.
“We were not informed in Egypt that our passport would be examined at the airport. To make matters worse, these officials do not carry any identification that tells us they are bona fide representatives of the Umrah company. How can we just hand over our passports to them? I don’t know the person and I don’t know why he is taking the passport,” he said, adding that he gave the passport reluctantly only to be told that he was not from that particular group. “The official holding my passport began shouting out the name of the representative of another company adding ‘Here’s another passport that belongs to you.’”
An Indian passenger, arriving from Bombay, took exception to the fact that the official demanded to see his passport. He told the official in Arabic that he works here and was not a pilgrim. But the official’s insistence on seeing his document led to a row, which was only defused when others intervened. The passenger walked off without showing his document.
The Umrah company representatives, who are mainly in their teens and early 20s, also have their complaints. They say most of the pilgrims are ignorant of the rules and are not advised in their countries of the procedures here. The language barrier is a further major hindrance. That there are no offices for us to streamline the passage only makes it worse, the representative said.
One representative said that if the regular passengers and the Umrah pilgrims are separated at the immigration counter and exit from separate gates then things would be easier.
Tarek Hamad, an official at Al-Attam for Umrah, said he faced a lot of problems from pilgrims as they did not know the language. “When we take their passport for a photocopy they refuse to give it to us. This leads to lots of problems. After copying the document we give it back to them. But they don’t know what we are doing. In some cases we have to take them to the Haj Ministry office to convince them.”
Hani Al-Amri, whose company handles pilgrims at the seaport, complained about similar problems.
“There are no offices to receive pilgrims. Egyptian and Sudanese pilgrims refuse to give us their passports. Despite our efforts to convince them to hand over the passports we only end up fighting.”
The representatives also complain of low wages and long hours. Sami Al-Otaibi, representative of Haj & Umrah, who works part-time says that many put in 12 hours daily for salaries ranging from SR2,000 to SR2,500. He said they work in shifts and the working hours increase if flights are delayed. “We call upon the Haj Ministry and airport authorities to open offices to organize the Umrah traffic properly,” he said.
