Saudi Arabia suspends Umrah e-visas for Egyptians after Hajj deaths

Saudi Arabia has suspended B2C Umrah e-visas for Egyptians after more than 1,300 people were killed during the Hajj.

The B2C is an electronic visa that allows pilgrims to book directly through the Kingdom’s online Umrah portal without having to use external travel agents.

Umrah is a short pilgrimage to holy sites in Mecca, separate from the annual Hajj, which is obligatory for all eligible Muslims.

Travellers using a B2C visa must first travel to the United Arab Emirates or Oman for a six-hour transit period before departing for the pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

The new Umrah visa policy comes after at least 1,301 worshippers died due to extreme heat during Hajj this month. Many of them travelled on unofficial visas, leaving them without adequate access to food, water, transport or shelter.

Saudi Arabia’s official news agency reported that more than three-quarters of those killed did not have a permit to perform the hajj and had to walk for hours in the blazing sun and without adequate food. Around 650 of the dead were Egyptians.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi stressed earlier this week that the suspension of the B2C visa was only a temporary measure.

Egyptians can still participate in Umrah, which unlike Hajj can be performed at any time of the year. However, this is currently only possible with the standard B2B visa, which allows direct entry to Saudi Arabia.

According to various reports, the B2C visa has also been suspended for Pakistan.

The deaths of Egyptians during the Hajj pilgrimage prompted Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to revoke the licenses of 16 tourism companies and refer their managers to the public prosecutor for allowing people to make the pilgrimage through illegal and irregular channels.

Permits to perform Hajj are usually allocated to countries according to a quota system and distributed to people by lottery. However, for many, the process can be costly, forcing them to make the pilgrimage on an unofficial visa or without a permit.

Extreme heat

Human Rights Watch released a report on Tuesday saying Saudi authorities have a duty to protect the population from extreme heat, especially as the climate crisis has led to rising temperatures.

“Outside of Hajj, they should implement heat protection measures to better protect the health of all vulnerable people. This is particularly urgent given Saudi Arabia’s plans under Vision 2030, which calls for increasing the annual number of religious pilgrims from 8 million to 30 million,” the report said.

The report states that next year’s Hajj pilgrimage will take place in summer, when temperatures are expected to be high, and calls on Saudi authorities to consider the Hajj as a danger and a risk to public health.

Climate change is increasingly affecting the Hajj pilgrimage: the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that parts of the Gulf could become uninhabitable by the end of the century.

Last year, more than 10,000 heat-related illnesses were recorded, 10 percent of which were heat strokes, a Saudi official said. AFP earlier this month.