Pilgrims from around the globe continue to flock to Makkah despite the extortionate prices of performing Umrah, which can reach SR50,000 a head.

Yet many of these pilgrims, on low incomes, save up for years before being able to travel.

Abu Mohammad Somali, a 60-year-old pilgrim, is one such example. Abu Mohammad was unable to perform Umrah until his son went abroad to work and began sending him money.

“I flew in with converts from different nationalities, most of whom were performing Umrah for the first time,” said Mohammad Al-Owayni, an Egyptian pilgrim. “They had been wanting to perform Umrah ever since they converted, but they knew they could not afford it.”

One pilgrim from Southeast Asia had to wait two years after his conversion before he could afford coming to the Kingdom.

Yousif Al-Hajiri, a preacher at a local mosque, said pilgrims coming in from abroad often don’t know if they will ever get the chance to visit the holy land.

Mohammad Qurt, a mutawwif (pilgrims’ guide around the House of God), said he had met many pilgrims who thought that coming to Makkah was a farfetched dream that would never come true.

“I met a family of three from a poor Southeast Asian country,” he said. “I was told through their interpreter that they had sold their farm, their only means of survival, to perform Haj.”