MAKKAH: At least 240 Chadian pilgrims formed a sit-in along the busy Umm Al-Qura Street in Al-Mansour district in Makkah on Monday after their rent expired.
They caused traffic chaos in the busy street.
Security patrols and traffic police rushed to the scene along with Haj Ministry officials, the deputy chairman of the Tawafa Establishment for Non-Arabic speaking African Pilgrims and the head of the Chadian Haj mission, among others.
Undersecretary of the Haj Ministry Hatim Qazi said the problem first arose when their airline told them it was unable to take them home for technical reasons. “They were exasperated so they assembled along the street as an expression of anger and disappointment,” he added.
Qazi said officials of the ministry and the Tawafa Establishment were able to convince the Chadian pilgrims that what they were doing was against the spirit of Haj. So they dispersed after the establishment agreed to pay for food and accommodation until the ministry solved the problem.
“The air carrier will have to honor its commitment towards these pilgrims by taking them home or face fines,” he said. Qazi added the carrier might have failed to take them because of commitments with other pilgrims.
Spokesman of the Makkah police Maj. Abdul Mohsen Al-Miman said the problem worried the Haj Ministry and that security patrols were dispatched to the area to defuse any confrontations that might take place between pilgrims and pedestrians.
Residents of Al-Mansour district were appalled by the traffic congestion caused by the squatters and said this was a repetition of similar situations in previous years.
