Hiiraan Online
Friday, October 16, 2015
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Somalia’s government has denied reports by Saudi Media that some of its citizens who attended this year’s annual Hajj pilgrimage are reluctant to return home due to the security situation in the horn of Africa.
The Saudi Arabia daily Al-Watan reported this week that As many as 2,292 Somali pilgrims have asked for the extension of their Hajj visa to prolong their stay in the Kingdom because they were not in a hurry to return due to the precarious security and worsening economic situation back home.
However, Ahmed Luqman, Somalia’s representative to Hajj dismissed reports as ‘baseless’, assuring that all the Somali citizens who attended the Hajj would return home before their visas expire.
Citing government sources, the Al-Watan newspaper said the pilgrims who wish to stay back represented 31.48 percent of a total 7,280 Somali pilgrims who performed Hajj this year.
“Those reports are baseless, I am urging the media to confirm their reports.” Mr. Luqman told reporters in Jeddah on Thursday.
Sources in the Tawafa Establishment for Arab Pilgrims told the Newspaper that the demand by Somali pilgrims might trigger problems between the pilgrims and the official Somali Hajj mission, which is representing them.
They said this was a common problem during the past two years wherein pilgrims from the politically unstable countries would not have any desire to go back.
More than ten Somalis, out of 5,450 Somali pilgrims died in the recent stampede and crane crush in Mecca.
Nevertheless, Saudi officialsa said that after this date, the pilgrims will be treated as overstayers who have violated the Kingdom’s residency law, an action which may lead them to prosecution.