Saudi Arabia’s B2C electronic visa for Umrah has been suspended for citizens of Egypt. The decision comes following over 1,300 deaths recorded during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage.
Announcing the new changes, a member of the General Assembly of the Egyptian Travel Agents Associations Basil al-Sisi said that the current Hajj season crisis is also a result of the issuance of unregulated visas, VisaGuide.World reports.
Sisi said the decision to stop the B2C visa, booked through the electronic Umrah portal of Saudi Arabia, does not mean that there are no more visas for Umrah. However, it means that this kind of visa will not be issued at present for Egyptians.
Sisi highlighted that the suspension is temporary until there is an agent for the country from which the visa is issued for organizing travel.
B2C visa allows its holder to enter the system, obtain the visa, and travel without a trip organizer, which is unacceptable after the Hajj crisis.
The B2C visa is an electronic visa for Umrah dedicated to those wishing to perform Umrah from outside Saudi Arabia without the need for an external agent.
Egypt to Prosecute Tourism Companies Over Hajj Fraud
Local media recently reported that some tourism companies have been offering cheap Hajj packages for those wishing to perform Hajj, using tourist visas instead of Hajj visas.
As a result, Prime Minister of Egypt, Mostafa Madbouly, ordered the closure of 16 tourism companies licenses while referring their managers to the public prosecutor related to irregular pilgrimages to Mecca.
According to a report from AFP, Egyptians accounted for a total of 658 deaths out of over 1,300 deaths registered in Hajj.
The prime minister has ordered the licenses of these companies to be revoked, their managers to be referred to the public prosecutor and the imposition of a fine to benefit the families of the pilgrims who died because of them.
According to the cabinet, the increase in the number of deaths of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims resulted from tourism companies which organized the Hajj programmers using a personal visit visa instead of a Hajj visa, therefore being ineligible to enter Mecca.
Based on the statistics from the cabinet, more than 50,000 Egyptians officially joined the pilgrimage.
According to the figures from the AP, over 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj this year, taking into account over 1.6 million from 22 countries and about 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents.