Electronic system helps stem tide of Umrah overstayers

September 13, 2013

Jeddah, Sep 13: A new electronic crowd management system adopted by the Ministry of Haj has been instrumental in drastically reducing the number of pilgrims overstaying their Umrah visas this year, Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar has said.

“Most of the 5.13 million pilgrims who came for Umrah this year have left the Kingdom. Only 11,000 of them now remain in the country and we hope they leave before the Haj season,” the minister said.

He said the same system would be applied to this year’s Haj pilgrims in order to prevent them from overstaying in the country seeking jobs. Outstaying Haj and Umrah visas has been one of the major problems faced by the Saudi government over the past years.

Hajjar said the new electronic system has reduced the phenomenon of foreign pilgrims being cheated by Umrah service providers. The system helps pilgrims monitor the services offered to them by companies before their arrival in the Kingdom.

“The number of complaints we received from pilgrims during this Umrah season was far less than in previous years,” he said.

The electronic grouping and disbursement system also solved the problem of pilgrims’ overcrowding at airports, he pointed out.

Pilgrims were sent to the airport only after ensuring that they held confirmed bookings on return flights. Violators of the system, including Umrah service agents and airlines, were held responsible for providing stranded pilgrims with hotel accommodation, food and return flights.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

Comments