JEDDAH, 27 June 2005 — Saudi Arabia yesterday announced measures to monitor the arrival of Umrah pilgrims in order to prevent their overstaying in the country. “According to the Umrah plan for this year, a limited number of visas will be issued to each service company. New visas will not be issued to a company until it has made sure that the previous group has left,” Haj Minister Fouad Al-Farsy said.
He said the new measure was taken in order to prevent overstaying and he urged Umrah service providers in the Kingdom and abroad to take steps to ensure their pilgrims left the country after performing their religious duty. Al-Farsy warned that the ministry would not allow any firms which are negligent in this regard to continue in business. “We will stop their services and take punitive measures against them,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister as saying. The ministry can easily discover whether the pilgrims have returned by using a computer system, which has been installed at airports and other entry points. “We can find out the position of each company from computer data,” he added.
The government took the new measure as a result of growing numbers of Umrah pilgrims. More than five million pilgrims from inside and outside Saudi Arabia perform Umrah every year, with the largest contingent arriving during Ramadan.
“The government has set out a system to organize Umrah traffic as pilgrims arrive, move around and leave the Kingdom according to a pre-planned program,” the minister said, adding that any delay and problem would have a negative impact on their comfort and convenience.
Al-Farsy said the ministry would follow up the performance of Umrah service companies within the Kingdom and abroad to know the measures they have taken to prevent overstaying and improve pilgrim services.
The ministry has signed a contract with Al-Tasheel Al-Haditha, a Jeddah-based company, to receive pilgrims at airports, seaports and other entry points and return them there. Officials of Tasheel collect the pilgrims’ passports and tickets on arrival, take pictures of the documents by video camera, enter the data in a computer system and distribute photocopies to the Haj Ministry, the Passports Department and other authorities.
The officials later hand over passports and tickets to pilgrim service agents, who eventually return the passports to the pilgrims while keeping the pilgrims’ tickets until the day of their departure.
The new system has been adopted to prevent pilgrims from overstaying. Many Umrah performers who come with the intention of staying in the Kingdom for jobs do so despite the new measures. They do not return to their Saudi agents to get their tickets.
But many pilgrims who come individually for Umrah have complained about the new system, saying it caused them much trouble and inconvenience. First, they have to wait for at least two hours for their passports. Sometimes, pilgrims complained about missing passports and tickets as they are not properly safeguarded. Pilgrims face tension at the time of their return journey as on many occasions, the agents arrive late at the airport. Many pilgrims have requested the Saudi authorities to review the system as they fear it will damage the Kingdom’s reputation.
As many as three million Umrah pilgrims are expected this year. Saudi Arabian Airlines has set out a plan to transport nearly two million Umrah pilgrims from 86 locations.
Economists predict that Umrah revenue during the next 10 years will reach SR30 billion with the number of foreign Umrah performers expected to reach five million in 2012.
According to estimates, the average expense per Umrah performer is SR3,000, 25 percent of which is for accommodation. The area around the Grand Mosque in Makkah has seen many residential projects where rents are between SR100 and SR150 a day for hotels and SR25 and SR95 for furnished apartments.
“These are low prices and the reason is that Umrah companies do not market Umrah programs properly throughout the year and so we have the highest occupancy only in Ramadan and Haj,” said a hotel employee. He said the area could easily accommodate two million Umrah visitors a month rather than the barely 50,000 they receive now.
