JEDDAH, 17 January 2006 — A large number of Egyptian and Sudanese pilgrims are stranded at the Jeddah Islamic Seaport. They are waiting for the companies that brought them here to send them back to their countries.
Most of the pilgrims are overstayers who came for Umrah and have been in the Kingdom since Ramadan.
They should have returned home after Ramadan but they remained here illegally in order to perform Haj. A source at the port said that the pilgrims would have to wait until their ships arrive and that the ships had been delayed.
Fawziya Abdul Salam, an Egyptian woman, said that after completing Haj, the company brought them to the port but their ship had not yet arrived. “We have been waiting now for more than 24 hours and there is no solution but to sit on the street and sidewalks until the ship arrives,”
Othman, from Sudan, said that he did not understand why they have been waiting for three days in the cold weather. He said the company had promised that the ship would arrive but that it had not yet done so.
“If the ship has not arrived, then somebody must be responsible. I blame the company for our troubles. It should provide housing for us until our ship arrives.”
Other Umrah overstayers have come to the port because they want to go home but have no reservations or tickets — and sometimes no passports. Mohammad Ali, a customs officer, blames the overcrowded conditions on companies which brought their pilgrims to the port without knowing if their ships had arrived or not. He said the large numbers of people are creating traffic jams outside the port entrance.
The Manager of the Haj Department at the Jeddah Islamic Seaport, Fahd Al-Adwani, said that some Umrah and Haj companies had simply brought pilgrims to the port and left them there.
The department directed the companies to take the pilgrims back to the Haj City near the port where facilities were available. Al-Adwani said that more than 18,500 Umrah overstayers have already left the port en route to their countries.
