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Abu Dhabi: Saudi authorities have shut down 540 Umrah agents after their pilgrims overstayed their visas, Saad Jamil Al Qurashi, former head of the Saudi Haj and Umrah Committee, said. Al Qurashi told Al Watan newspaper there were only about 100 Umrah companies operating, pointing out that COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have caused about 10,000 employees to be made redundant.
Each Umrah company employs about 20 employees at airports, checkpoints, hotels and companies sites, in addition to more than 800 corporate managers, managing directors and executives.
Al Qurashi said the losses of Umrah companies are in the hundreds of millions of riyals and all the fines are related to the pilgrims’ overstaying of their visas, indicating that the fine for breaking the visa for one pilgrim is 25,000 riyals.