The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has banned travel visas to be issued to people from a record of 14 countries, together with Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh.
The travel restrictions don’t apply to pilgrims coming from India for Hajj who’ve secured Hajj visas. Hajj vacationers from India holding legitimate permits or intending to acquire them will likely be allowed to enter Mecca and Medine to take part within the deliberate pilgrimage.
The suspension is meant to forestall unauthorized vacationers from performing Hajj with out correct registration and to keep away from overcrowding during the Muslim custom after a devastating tragedy final 12 months.
The ban just isn’t supposed to be everlasting, and can stay energetic till mid-June, when the pilgrimage involves an finish.
The nation’s authorities is briefly suspending the issuance of Umrah, business, and household go to visas for the residents of 14 listed countries.
The visa ban is disappointing for the tens of thousand of pilgrims hailing from majority-muslim nations like Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, who won’t be able to take part within the journey to Mecca.
Saudi Arabian authorities have expressed that the ban has been put in place to stop people from making an attempt to carry out Hajj with out correct registration.
Officials declare that residents from the listed countries have been overstaying their visas to illegally carry out Hajj this 12 months.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has ordered stricter visa regulation enforcements so the pilgrimage can operate as easily and securely as potential.
After April 13, no new visas will likely be issued to anybody from the listed countries who apply.
So far, 13 countries have been confirmed to be on the record of suspended visas, together with: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Nigeria, Jordan, Algeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tunisia, and Yemen, with one unidentified nation additionally on the record.
The resolution is a preventative measure after over 1,000 people had been killed during final 12 months’s pilgrimage, many of which who had been unauthorized.
The mass-scale deaths had been exacerbated by overcrowding and excessive desert heat.
The nation’s travel restrictions function a strategy to mitigate overcrowding points during the yearly pilgrimage.
(*14*) who obtain their visas earlier than the cutoff date of April 13 is not going to be affected by the ban.
