Saudi Arabia to reopen borders for vaccinated Umrah pilgrims

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will begin accepting vaccinated foreigners wanting to perform Umrah, authorities said Sunday, a move that will boost an economy hit by the Covid pandemic. Nearly 18 months after it closed its borders to battle coronavirus, Saudi Arabia will from today (Monday) begin "gradually receiving Umrah requests from various countries," the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The Umrah can be undertaken at any time and usually draws millions from around the globe, unlike the annual Haj, which abled-bodied Muslims who have the means must perform at least once in their lifetime. The Covid-19 pandemic hugely disrupted both Muslim pilgrimages, which are usually key revenue earners for the kingdom that rake in a combined $12 billion annually.

Before Sunday's announcement, only immunised pilgrims residing in Saudi Arabia were eligible for Umrah permits. And last month only around 60,000 inoculated residents were allowed to take part in a scaled down form of the annual Haj.

But the kingdom is slowly opening up, and has started welcoming vaccinated foreign tourists since August 1. Foreign pilgrims must be immunised with a Saudi-recognised vaccine -- Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson -- and agree to undergo quarantine if necessary, the SPA said, quoting deputy Haj minister Abdulfattah bin Sulaiman Mashat. He added that the kingdom was working on determining the destinations from which pilgrims can come and their numbers on a "periodic basis according to the classification of preventive measures" in those countries.

"I feel relieved about the resumption of the Umrah pilgrimage," Ahmed Hamadna, 33, a sales manager in Egypt, told AFP. But he added that he was "concerned about the complex procedures and measures during the pandemic".

Engineer Mohamad Ragab, an Australian resident, said he too was still "hesitant" to perform Umrah. "There will likely be crowds in Makkah and the chances of infection are high," he said. According to the SPA report, Saudi Arabia will allow 60,000 pilgrims to perform Umrah each month, and gradually increase that to reach two million worshippers per month. Hosting the pilgrimages is a matter of prestige for Saudi rulers, for whom the custodianship of Islam´s holiest sites is their most powerful source of political legitimacy.