Hajj, Umrah overstay

[jstar]

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As you know, there are strict quota per country for the amount of Hajj travelers.

Now some of the travel agencies organizing these holy trips, have gotten quite a bad name by overselling or even not booking for paying customers at all.

But now there is a bit of a new phenomenon; the Umrah overstay.

The Umrah is a not mandatory trip and can be taken every part of the year. So what recently happened; 34 people of a Lombok group have disappeared from their Umrah.

So the idea is to overstay till the Hajj period (end August) and thus circumventing the waiting list. Some of them work (illegally) in Saudi Arabia, others get food at a local mosque, ....

You could ask yourself if performing an illegal act to meet the religious requirement will not be frowned upon? But the whole earlier fake passport business (via the Philippines) showed us some don’t see that as a problem.

The travel agency gets a fine of 100 million IDR per missing person so they are also not happy with this situation.

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[snpark]

I know it's a religious matter and very sacred but one must really want to fulfil their Haj Umrah requirements very very badly indeed to want to overstay in Saudi I think?

Apart from the heat, getting a job and working to survive? Bad idea. You would earn peanuts, probably get mistreated, and then not get the time off to go to Mecca anyway
Plus then your employer will keep you and you will be stuck there
Just my opinion. Highly unrecommended

 

[Jamu]

Not so sure that the Saudi authorities will take kindly to this strategy. Per the attached article, overstays will attract a six month prison term plus a fine of 50,000 riyals per person (about 185 juta). http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/...il-for-Umrah-pilgrims-overstaying-their-visas

 

[Anglian]

On the way home from work, several overstayers would hide under a bridge, now and again the Saudi police would do a raid, you would see people legging it in all directions, getting caught would also earn a good kicking on the way to jail, quite sad really as if the had a job they would get paid peanuts and treated like shite

 

[jstar]

It seems the whole thing came to light when an old man was ‘offered’ at an airport to an Indonesian tour (guide). There was a story he wanted to go home but was abandoned by his travel agency perhaps after an illegal combo trip, that the Saudis wanted to get rid of him ASAP, and the Bapak needed assistance ...

There was some outrage that this poor man was ‘left behind’ by yet another shady agency and there were even volunteers to buy him a new trip after getting home, but then the travel agency went into defense and explained what had really happened.

 

[Anglian]

It’s also very sad, very elderly people get lost, and die, usually several notices in the newspaper, have you seen my mum, probably already buried,