LAHORE—Although travel agents promote religious pilgrimage and are passionate about convincing Muslims to go to Saudi Arabia for Umrah, this is not the case this time.
As the number of Umrah goers begging in the holy land has spiked in recent months, travel agents in Pakistan’s provincial capital, Lahore, are cautious about issuing visas to a specific category of applicants.
Specifically, travel agents are reluctant to issue Umrah visas to those aspiring to go to Saudi Arabia alone. Multiple travel agents have voiced concerns that those who head to Saudi Arabia alone on Umrah visas end up becoming beggars in the country.
As the holy month of Ramadan has dawned, hundreds of thousands of Muslims from Pakistan head to Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah. Some of them have no family to accompany them. Those heading to the holy land all alone are at risk because they could be using Umrah visas to end up as beggars on the streets of Medinah and Makkah during the Umrah season, which sees millions of Muslims converge in Saudi Arabia.
Owing to the same concerns, travel agents are now reluctant to issue visas to these people. Some agents believe that the Saudi government reserves the right to impose a fine of Rs 2.5 million on the travel agent for misuse of the Umrah visa, which is holding them back from issuing Umrah visas to those heading alone without any family, Independent Urdu reported.
The development comes as hundreds of cases have emerged in which Umrah visa holders from Pakistan end up begging on the streets of Saudi Arabia. The law enforcers have offloaded dozens of beggars disguised as Umrah pilgrims from flights in recent months.
Travel agents have highlighted a new trend in which single youngsters secure Umrah visas and land in Saudi Arabia only to extend their stay afterwards and engage themselves in purely non-religious activities; primarily men, but some women have also been reported to do the same.
The same concern has now pushed travel agents to discourage people from traveling alone to Saudi Arabia by not helping them obtain visas. In addition, due to inflation, the number of Umrah goers from Pakistan has already declined.
