MENU Nigerian News from Leadership Newspapers Ad Ad HOME / RELIGION / UMRAH VISA TRAFFICKERS (2) Umrah Visa Traffickers (2) Ustaz Abubakr Siddeeq Muhammad — Aug 15, 2014 | 2 Comments The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) has developed an evolving system of evaluating the services that Umrah pilgrims get from tour operators. NAHCON inspectors were seen in accommodation sites in both Madeenah and Makkah, engaging pilgrims, and giving them questionnaires for proper assessment of standard of services rendered them by their Umrah agents. The inspection team, for instance, met the Umrah contingent of my company at the façade of Madinah Hilton on its way to ziyaarah as part of rituals for the visit to the City of the Prophet (SAW). Members of NAHCON inspection team were welcomed to our VIP buses; they made few introductory remarks on their assignment before administering the questionnaires to about five or so volunteers, who filled and returned the forms to them. Another set of inspectors visited our place of accommodation in Makkah also – Movenpick Hajar Towers, and Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower – where they repeated, with more pilgrims filling their questionnaires, the process they did in Madeenah. As the questionnaires were not meant for tour operators, I was not able to read the entire contents. However, this Umrah evaluation exercise by NAHCON is commendable. I am convinced that through it, the Nigerian Umrah pilgrim will be protected as to the payment he makes, and the standard of service he receives from his tour operator. As I have had cause to mention severally, the Hajj Commission is getting many things right, and we should acknowledge it and commend them. I suggest that NAHCON should also be interested in the actual name and standard of the hotels on the packages sold to the pilgrims. Asking for ‘Proximity to Haram’ is not enough. Let the Commission delve deep into the rating of the hotel – three, four or five star – and whether or not the tour company maintains the same hotels advertised on its brochure for the Umrah package (assuming there is a brochure to begin with). Many Umrah service providers do not state exact accommodation of pilgrims in the holy cities. Honest arrangements have nothing to do with vague descriptions like ‘Our places accommodation in Madinah and Makkah are close to the Haram.’ If it is true, name the hotel. In this era of Google, the pilgrims can easily know the actual location of the hotel. My staff often show the prospective pilgrim the exact location of any hotel we are using through Google Maps. Where the reference is vague, pilgrim beware! Feeding is another area that should interest NAHCON. Since we are speaking about Ramadan, they should demand to know if the packages were sold with Iftar or Suhur, or both, and if the pilgrims have been so served by the company. Four and five star hotels sell packages with Iftar only (half board) or Iftar and Suhur (full board), and the rates vary. So, let no pilgrim be charged for full board and be denied Suhur at the end of the day. Let the questionnaires seek these details from the respondents. A complete Umrah package must not neglect the spiritual side of the pilgrimage. NAHCON’s interests should cover the extent of arrangement by the Umrah company for ziyaarah in Madeenah for the pilgrims, and the presence of a Muslim scholar to give guidance and admonish the group. I am pleased to see that NAHCON is keen to know if pilgrims were made to pay additional money to tour operators after arriving into Saudi Arabia. Yes, Umrah companies incur extra expenses during operations, and even on Hajj exercise, but that is part of the job. No pilgrim should be made to pay any money for whatever reason in Saudi Arabia. Any situation that may warrant incurring extra cost should have been factored into pricing ab initio, rather than gambling with the pilgrims and the company’s hard-earned goodwill. If there is failure to secure accommodation in the advertised hotel on the package, it is the responsibility of the tour operator to get an alternative place equal in standard to the former one or even higher at no extra cost to the pilgrim. The pilgrim is not made to pay for the mistake of the Umrah Company or that of its Saudi partners. As soon as the pilgrims pay for the Umrah package they are entitled to whatever such package entails, they are not liable to paying additional costs that may arise due to fluctuation of hotel rates or other services. The Umrah company’s contingency plan should bear that, and not the pilgrims. Another protection to be ensured for the Umrah pilgrims by NAHCON is in the last 10 days of Ramadan package in, especially, Makkan hotels. Whenever Saudi Arabia will complete Ramadan fast to thirty days, the hotels insist on people checking out of their rooms on the 29th of Ramadan because that marks the end of the tenth day, according to the package. Otherwise, guests must pay for an additional night if they are to celebrate Eid in Makkah. In any case, the Umrah company must pay for the extension without charging the pilgrims anything in that regard. The pilgrims have paid for a complete package, which covers the last 10 days of Ramadan, whether the fast will be for 29 or 30 days. Through visa-only pilgrims, NAHCON could discover the source of such shady deals as may exist between Umrah visa racketeers and Saudi Embassy staff. The inspection team can ask people at random concerning the source of their visa. Alternatively, a section could be added on the questionnaires for Umrah visa and how it was obtained. Of course, this has nothing to do with those pilgrims who paid for a complete Umrah package through an organised tour operator. Most of these visa-only pilgrims are within the four and five star hotel axis. They are the bane of Umrah operations in Nigeria. Most of them are people of means and highly placed government officials who do not mind paying anything for visa-only arrangement. This attitude of I-can-pay is what makes the cost of Umrah visa less affordable to the average Muslim who has no access to public funds. These Nigerian VIPs can pay N500, 000 per passport on visa-only for 20 or 30 people plus payment of suites and rooms in Saudia, and upon check in distribute SAR,5000 (225, 000) or so, to each and every person at the Reception desk of the hotel in Makkah or Madeenah. No wonder then, that a manager would leave his office to receive such VIPs at the airport upon arrival into the Kingdom. I witness this every Umrah and Hajj operation. One who earns halaal cannot be so extravagant! I am aware of people getting Saudi entry visas for amounts from USD 4,500 to as much as USD 10,000 which they use to gain entry into the KSA and perform Umrah and Hajj. Let NAHCON devise a means of getting information from visa-only pilgrims on the tour operator that secured their visa. Once established, such tour operator should expose his collaborators within the Saudi Embassy. At times, this fraud is facilitated with the connivance of people in the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja, through what they call ‘note verbale’, where a document is sent to the Saudi Arabian Embassy requesting for visa for some government officials. This is valid in normal diplomatic engagements, but it is extremely abused when it comes to Hajj or Umrah visas. The list on the ‘note verbale’ may not have a single government official. In such a case, one cannot but be fair to the Saudi Arabian Embassy, as there is no way the embassy could ascertain who is a Nigerian government official and who is not. Apart from the above example of note verbale, the Saudi Embassy could hardly be absolved of complicity in visa racketeering at a time when the Umrah portal is closed for MoFA numbers. This is just conjecture, by the way. NAHCON could assist in examining this issue and sanctioning the erring tour operators or even seeing to their defenestration from the Umrah and Hajj industry. On Ebola Nigerians are some of the most accomplished rumour-mongers I know. We pass on a lot of unverified information daily to people; sometimes correct, sometimes exaggerated and most times completely false. In Nigeria, everyone knows who stole Nigeria’s billions and they will point at buildings the so-called thieves bought or built with the proceeds. When you ask the accusers to substantiate the accusation, they get angry and turn on you, accusing you of being a collaborator of the thief. That is how things are done to a large extent here. It is a wonder there are not many cases of libel suits. You see Nigerians at their rumour-mongering worst when in times of crisis. A brilliant opportunity just presented itself with the outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease. I have even heard (forgive the pun) that some people claimed that Nigeria has been banned from airlifting pilgrims for Hajj! Subhaanallah! This is completely false. In fact, the officials of the National Hajj Commission that went to sign airlift agreements with the Saudi government just returned to Nigeria this week. NAHCON has issued a statement debunking this claim as mere rumour but Nigerians have persisted in spreading it. How will the Saudi government ban Nigeria from conducting Hajj airlifts and still be signing agreements and issuing guidelines after the said ban? This illustrates what I was explaining about how Nigerians spread baseless information. I personally have intending pilgrims who have withdrawn from this year’s Hajj, citing Ebola concerns. This is sad and unwarranted. You also hear of people bathing in hot water and salt or eating copious amounts of bitter kola to stop or cure the disease, depending on the rumour that got to them. We swim in drinking water and cry of thirst. There is an ocean of free, authoritative information on the disease but only a few are bothering to read up anything, instead, we wait for the latest rumour and work ourselves into a frenzy. As I write this, getting a hand sanitizer in any pharmacy is looking like lifelong adventure. A friend’s friend once wrote that ignorance scares him; it scares me too. Ignorance gives birth to many terrible children, panic being one of the senior ones. Imagine people with access to news on television and the internet swallowing that kind of junk information. Just ask one of them where they got the report and you will be amazed at how the Nigerian mind works. Nigerians should know that Ebola is not an epidemic in Nigeria by any stretch of imagination yet. There have been a total of 10 confirmed cases nationwide and less than 200 people are under surveillance. As at Tuesday, 11th August, 39 out of that number have been cleared after the stipulated 21-day observation period, the rest are still under watch. About 1400 years ago, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) taught us what modern medicine has just started doing; quarantine. We are told in Saheeh Bukhaariy by ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amir bin Rabi’a that ‘Umar bin Al-Khattab left for Sham (the region that is known today as Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine), and when he reached a placed called Sargh, he came to know that there was an outbreak of an epidemic (of plague) in Sham. Then ‘AbdurRahman bin ‘Auf told him that Allah’s Apostle (PBUH) said, “If you hear the news of an outbreak of an epidemic (plague) in a certain place, do not enter that place: and if the epidemic falls in a place while you are present in it, do not leave that place to escape from the epidemic.” So ‘Umar returned from Sargh. (Book #86, Hadith #103). We hear and we obey instructions from the Messenger of Allah. Besides, it is a mercy for the believers as our Mother, Aisha (RA) said in another hadeeth: Narrated ‘Aisha: (the wife of the Prophet) that she asked Allah’s Apostle about plague, and Allah’s Apostle informed her saying, “plague was a punishment which Allah used to send on whom He wished, but Allah made it a blessing for the believers. None (among the believers) remains patient in a land in which plague has broken out and considers that nothing will befall him except what Allah has ordained for him, but that Allah will grant him a reward similar to that of a martyr.” (Book #71, Hadith #630) I advise everyone to be calm and cautious and to ascertain information before spreading it. I hope to write on how a Muslim should look at Ebola and other calamities soon, inshaa Allah. « Previous Article Zaria Massacre: As The World Cries Earnestly For Justice! Next Article » 2015: Those Kicking Against Sambo Are Enemies of Northern Nigeria – Barde LEADERSHIP COMMUNITY LOGIN Username * Password * No Community Account? Create One! PHOTO GALLERY Charlie-Parker_snake_Australia_2 Charlie-Parker_snake_Australia_1 Charlie-Parker_snake_Australia_6 Charlie-Parker_snake_Australia_7 DAILY COLUMNS Monday If This Is What It Takes To Win Elections... by Sam Nda-Isaiah Aug 11th | No Comments The people of Osun State have spoken. 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Posted on: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 13:50:41 +0000
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