Saudi Arabia has recently started receiving requests for pilgrims from outside the Kingdom, a year and a half after suspending the pilgrims’ pilgrimage, within the framework of the restrictions of the Corona pandemic, which are still in force towards the pilgrims of a large number of countries.
According to a statement by a Saudi travel agent, “The Kingdom decided to lift the ban on 23 countries, not including Egypt, which is included in the list of countries prohibited from performing Umrah until further notice.”
Saudi sources indicated that the countries that lifted the ban, including Hong Kong, Armenia, Curacao, China, Nicaragua, Iran, Sweden, Macedonia, Germany, the United States, Guinea-Bissau, Taiwan, Japan, Ireland, Portugal, Macau, Britain, Switzerland, Italy, France, the Vero Islands, Liberia, and Montenegro.
The list of countries still subject to the ban includes Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia.
The Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah explained that “the capacity will reach 60 thousand pilgrims distributed over 8 operational periods, to reach the capacity to two million pilgrims per month,” noting that the issuance of permits will be through the “Umrahna” and “Tawakulna” applications within an integrated system of services. and preventive measures.
