Hajj: S/Arabia turns back 400,000 illegal pilgrims

Over 400,000 pilgrims without permit to perform this year’s hajj have been turned back by Saudi Arabian authorities, a newspaper has reported.

The Saudi Gazette also reported that 208,236 vehicles carrying the illegal pilgrims were stopped from the entry points of Makkah.

Col. Sami AlShuwairekh, director of the public relations and media department at the Public Security, said a total of 1,841 expatriates are facing penal action and have been handed to the Public Prosecution or other concerned agencies to take necessary procedures against them.

He said 3,296 vehicles carrying them were seized from the entry points.

Speaking at a joint press conference held at the headquarters of Public Security in Mina, Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, security spokesman at the Ministry of Interior, said all the concerned agencies have completed their preparations to offer the best ever services for over two million pilgrims. These included 1.734 million foreign pilgrims and around 200,000 domestic pilgrims. He said more than 50 per cent of the foreign pilgrims have already completed their Madinah visit.

Hatem Qadi, advisor of Minister of Haj and Umrah, said that a total of 19,500 buses were used to transport pilgrims from Madinah to Makkah. Around 9,000 buses are being used to transport pilgrims from Makkah Haram to Mina.

On his part, Col. Abdullah Al-Harthy, spokesman of the Civil Defense, said there were no accidents reported so far among the pilgrims.