MAKKAH, 16 November 2007 — Passport Department officials are continuing to arrest pilgrims who have overstayed their Umrah visas to perform Haj, and local expatriates who house the pilgrims.
Arab News recently accompanied a team of Passport Department officials led by Maj. Faisal Al-Sualim in raids across Makkah. In one such raid 37 Egyptian pilgrims, who had overstayed their Ramadan Umrah visas were apprehended hiding in a residential district in Makkah. The pilgrims had paid an Egyptian called Hamada money to overstay their visas.
“A friend told me that Hamada had good relations with local Saudis. I paid him SR5,500. He took this much from all of us. This included Umrah in Ramadan, Haj and shelter during the period between Umrah and Haj,” said Majdi, one of those who were arrested.
“I paid him the cash when I came to the Kingdom in Ramadan. After Eid, when our visas were about to expire, he took us to this area in Makkah away from the Grand Mosque. We were told to stay there and not to go out or even open windows,” he added.
Muhammad Saeed, another Egyptian overstayer, was arrested with his wife. “After our visa expired, Hamada brought us and disappeared,” he said.
“I’m a government worker in Egypt. I’ve applied to do Haj several times, but was always refused a visa. I heard about Hamada and thought I might as well come to the Kingdom and overstay,” said a pilgrim, who asked his name not be published. “I was told Hamada is a fantastic person and that he can easily keep us safe until the Haj. He brought us here and told us to stay low and to keep away from officials,” he said.
Abu Muati, another overstaying pilgrim, said: “Hamada took our money and fled.” With tears in his eyes, he said, “We invited all this trouble. We were doing wrong. Hamada must have made around over SR200,000.”
In another raid in the Al-Sharai district of the holy city, Passport Department officials arrested Musad, an Egyptian expatriate running the same business. However, Musad was not as successful as Hamada. Musad had housed 52 Egyptian pilgrims charging them SR2,800 each.
“We reported Musad to the police. He just left us cooked up in this old house, having taken our money,” said an old man from Upper Egypt. “We grassed him up. He deserves what he gets. He told us not to say anything to the cops if we get picked up.”
Najeeb, another pilgrim, said: “Two days after bringing us here, Musad disappeared. We couldn’t contact him. He told us to keep the light off. It was horrible.” He added that a person would visit them at night and would bring them food and other items that they may need.
“We trusted Musad as he claimed he knows high officials who could make things easy for him,” said one pilgrim.
Arab News spoke to Musad, who continually contradicted himself. “I live in the Kingdom and I am married to an expatriate, whose brothers are Saudi. I rented a building for SR24,000, which has been used by two expatriates to house overstayers,” he said. “What can I do? It’s not my fault that they’ve used the building for something illegal,” he added.
However, the pilgrims themselves incriminated Musad. Passport Department officials contacted the owner of the building and spoke to local residents, who confirmed that Musad had rented the building and there were no third parties renting the building. Musad was also unable to provide documentation showing that he had rented the building on.
Col. Aid Al-Lugmani, head of the Passport Department in Makkah, said a huge number of overstayers have been arrested recently. “We undertake field inspections to arrest overstayers,” he said. “This Musad is a character. His case will be investigated and if it is found that he is guilty then he will be fined SR10,000 for every overstayer. That means he’s going to have to cough up a total of SR520,000,” he said, adding, “Overstayers shoot themselves in the foot.”