JEDDAH, 25 November 2006 — More than 10,000 Umrah pilgrims who had overstayed their visas were arrested by the Passport Department in Makkah in the last lunar month of Shawwal, which ended a couple of days ago, a source of the department told Arab News yesterday.

They were identified at various safe homes in and around the holy city. The Ministry of Haj reports that so far this year about 200,000 Umrah pilgrims have not left their Kingdom after their visas expired.

“The campaign found two types of overstayers: one who is waiting to perform the upcoming Haj even though their pilgrimage visas have expired, and the other intending to remain in the Kingdom to work illegally,” said Capt. Mansour Al-Otaiby, director of the local Passport Department in Makkah.

The intensified campaigns against the overstayers begin in the middle of Shawwal, the month following Ramadan (in November). The choice of this particular time of the year is significant because this is the time when all foreign Umrah pilgrims are supposed to leave the Kingdom.

This year’s campaign has made special efforts to foil the tricks and strategies adopted by the overstayers or the begging rackets that prevent women, children and disabled pilgrims from leaving so that they may be forced to beg during Haj and submit their earnings to gang leaders who shelter them but also abuse them if they do not meet their begging quotas.

The official said the overstayers take their lodgings in Makkah’s many mish-mash neighborhoods of narrow allies and residents wary of outsiders, in some cases areas where police are fearful of going.

These neighborhoods provide refuge for pilgrims, particularly those of nationalities shared by the residents of a neighborhood.

Col. Aed Al-Luqmani, a Passport Department official in Makkah, said, “Before we send out our raiding teams, we mark the locations and buildings where the overstayers stay in large numbers.”

“So when the raid is made at nightly hours most of them could be arrested and deported. The Saudis who shelter them are fined up to SR10,000 per overstayer.”

Al-Luqmani also said that illegal agents approach Umrah pilgrims and offer lodging and protection until the Haj for a fee of SR2,000.

A Syrian overstayer told the Arab News that he and 120 other pilgrims from his country were offered secret protection until the Haj time by a Yemeni agent for a fee.

It is common for pilgrims who come for Umrah to remain in the Kingdom for Haj as well.

Some authorities and activists in the Kingdom have called for a visa regime that allows these pilgrims to reside legally as they perform both pilgrimages in one trip.

Pilgrimage visas are good for a two weeks stay in the Kingdom; a long visa stay would allow pilgrims to perform both Umrah and Haj on one trip. Many pilgrims come from poor, developing countries in Asia and Africa and save for years to come to the Kingdom to fulfill their obligations under Islam.

Other pilgrims, on the other hand, come and stay simply because they can scratch out a living in the Kingdom better than they can back home.

Between these two types of overstayers are Saudi authorities who fight a never-ending battle to prevent illegal immigration from overwhelming society.

As the custodian of the two holiest sites in Islam, the Kingdom is in the unique position of having to allow temporary immigration in order for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligations.

Adding to that the abject poverty, corruption and social strife in many of these countries where pilgrims originate, Saudi Arabia faces a perfect-storm scenario for becoming, against its will, the de facto adopting country for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people residing illegally in the Kingdom.