JEDDAH, 19 January 2004 — The Saudi ambassador to Kuwait, Ahmed Al-Yahya, yesterday denied reports that there had been a delay in issuing Haj visas to an estimated 30,000 Iraqi pilgrims.
“There is no delay. We have already issued Haj visas to 6,500 Iraqis and there are no unstamped Iraqi passports in the consulate,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying.
Yahya said his embassy was issuing visas within 24 hours of receiving passports. The Saudi Foreign Ministry has sufficient staff at the embassy to handle Iraqi Haj visas.
In a related development, Iraqi Deputy Health Minister Ammar Al-Saffar said yesterday that many Iraqi pilgrims at the border were living in difficult conditions because of rain and severe cold. “Local residents in the border city of Safwan have sheltered some pilgrims in schools while British forces set up 80 tents. This is an extremely painful situation,” he said. The ministry has dispatched a medical team to help the pilgrims.
Meanwhile, some 6,000 Iraqi pilgrims will cross the Arar border post within the next three days to continue the 1,000-km journey by bus to Makkah. A 100-tent camp administered by Iraq’s Red Crescent has been set up at Al-Nukhaib to deal with any backlog or delays at Arar. Another 50-tent camp has been set up near Arar.
Guest Pilgrims
Some 200 pilgrims from Europe and the Americas will perform Haj as guests of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd, according to Dr. Saleh Al-Wohaiby, secretary-general of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. He said WAMY had made all arrangements to receive the king’s guests.
Unlicensed Pilgrim Agents
The Haj Ministry has closed the offices of some 60 unlicensed domestic pilgrim service agents in Riyadh over the past few days, Al-Riyadh Arabic daily reported. Dr. Muhammad Saleh Banten, deputy Haj minister, said the ministry would continue its campaign against unlicensed agents in order to ensure good services to pilgrims. He said the registration of Haj permits in the ministry’s electronic data bank would prevent unlicensed permits.
