After 18 months of strict restraint on international flights, Saudi Arabia has finally opened its borders to foreign and vaccinated pilgrims for Umrah. However, Pakistan did not make it to this list. Although pilgrims from Pakistan and other unlisted countries can arrive for Umrah given they transit through a third country and spend 14 days in quarantine. The Saudi government issued application guidelines on 1st August.
60,000 permits are to be granted per day while monthly capacity is like to reach 2 million. Pilgrims are required to submit their vaccination certificate along with the Umrah request. Moreover, these pilgrims will be subject to ‘situational’ quarantine measures upon arrival.
Foreign Pilgrims who have undertaken Chinese vaccines, including Sinopharm and Sinovac have been requested to receive a booster shot of one of the four recognized vaccines like Moderna AstraZeneca.
Read more: Vaccinated Pakistanis can now travel to Saudi Arabia
The guideline states, “all visitors arriving in the country with a valid tourism visa must provide evidence of a full course of one the four vaccines currently recognized: two doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or a single dose of the vaccine produced by Johnson and Johnson.”
This time pilgrims under 18 years of age shall not be granted visas for Umrah. However, people visiting on a tourist visa will not be asked to quarantine in case they wish to perform Umrah, given their vaccination course is complete with one of the four recognised vaccines.
Umrah Announcements Thread:
1) The Tourism Visa began allowing tourists to apply for a Tourism Visa. This also allows visitors who want to perform Umrah. This Visa is restricted to certain countries.https://t.co/i2NKmQOSkd
— 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 (@HaramainInfo) August 7, 2021
'No Quarantine for Tourist Visa Holders prior to Umrah'
The Ministry of Tourism has announced that those holding Tourist Visa do not require to quarantine after arriving in the Kingdom as long as they are completely vaccinated
Read further: https://t.co/8W90QlUYHs pic.twitter.com/Y5nElzzRdp
— Inside the Haramain (@insharifain) August 4, 2021
Haramain Sharifain
@hsharifain
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BREAKING | International Umrah to resume from 1st Muharram 1443
Haramain Sharifain
@hsharifain
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Beginning today, Umrah agencies have been authorised to issue Visas for Umrah for entry beginning from 1st Muharram 1443 (10 August 2021)— Muhammad Daa-e (@DaaMuhammad) August 2, 2021
In 2019, Pakistan topped the list for Umrah Pilgrims entering Saudi Arabia. 495,000 Pakistani citizens performed Umrah between August 31 and December 26. This number was expected to grow in 2020, however, with covid infections rampaging across the globe, Saudi Arabia could no longer welcome people to offer pilgrimage.
Read more: Video goes viral of a Pakistani being assaulted by a mob in Saudi Arabia
Pakistan is still on the ‘high-risk’ list for Saudi Arabia. Recently even UAE barred flights from Pakistan as the rapid PCR facilities were not available on departing airports. Back in July, Saudi Arabia’ Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud visited Pakistan.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi discussed the challenges with border restrictions and how these issues required urgent solutions as more than 40,000 Pakistani working citizens in Saudi Arabia were stranded at home. So far Pakistan remains on the red list.
وزیر خارجہ مخدوم شاہ محمود قریشی کی سعودی ہم منصب فیصل بن فرحان کے ہمراہ وزارتِ خارجہ میں مشترکہ پریس کانفرنس۔@SMQureshiPTI @MoIB_Official @ForeignOfficePk @KSAMOFA @FaisalbinFarhan https://t.co/7DAKPlaAcr
— Government of Pakistan (@GovtofPakistan) July 27, 2021