Making money out of Umrah visas


 

Dear Sir,

I would like to bring to the attention of authorities that many Haj and Umrah operators (Hamla) in Qatar are making huge profits for arranging Umrah visas, especially during the month of Ramadan.

It is clearly written on the Saudi Umrah visa page that it is free. But the agents charge it in the name of Saudi Arabia.

This year an amount varying between QR600 and QR1,200 is charged per passport; the price varies depending on your negotiation skills! I wonder, if any authority is charging for the visa, why is  it not uniform? 

Another thing that I have noticed is that some groups are not interested in arranging visas for individuals as their main profit seems to come from organising Umrah packages.

Thousands of expatriate Muslims depend on private agencies for their Umrah visas. They are ready to pay reasonable service charges. But these agencies must not take advantages of pious Muslims as they don’t have direct access to the Saudi embassy.

So it is of utmost importance that the Haj and Umrah travel sector should be under close observation; otherwise such a facility will benefit only the rich people.

Kassim, (e-mail address supplied)

 

Aviation tragedy

Dear Sir,

Tragedy has struck the aviation sector yet again with the downing of the Malaysian MH17 flight over Ukraine. It is one of the few cases where a commercial flight has been brought down by non-state players who apparently mistook the Boeing 777 to be a military plane carrying cargo to their adversaries. 

It was the direct consequence of the ongoing war in Ukraine between a pro-West government and pro-Russian separatists groups who have been clandestinely supplied Buk surface-to-air missiles.

All governments should now co-operate with each other and  pay more attention to the danger of flying in conflict zones like Ukraine, Syria and Iraq.

The cause of the tragedy in which  nearly 300 innocent people lost their lives must be established and those guilty must be punished.

Ramesh G Jethwani, [email protected]

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