PolicyExternal Affairs
Rajya Sabha MP asks Jaishankar and Rijiju to bring home Umrah pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia
Mansoor Ali Khan says flight cancellations after Houthi strikes have left Indian pilgrims, many elderly or ill, without help as some tour operators run out of money.
Key points
- Rajya Sabha MP Mansoor Ali Khan has written to S Jaishankar and Kiren Rijiju about stranded Umrah pilgrims.
- He blames flight cuts and airport closures after Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia.
- India set up an extra control room in Makkah for affected pilgrims on Thursday.
A Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka has asked the Centre to step in for Indian Umrah pilgrims stranded in Saudi Arabia, where Houthi missile and drone strikes have closed airports and thinned out flights.
In letters to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, Mansoor Ali Khan said the pilgrims included women, children and elderly people, many with medical conditions. Some private tour operators had run out of money, he wrote, leaving pilgrims with no one to turn to and at risk of overstaying their visas and facing legal trouble.
Khan asked Jaishankar to have the embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah “establish immediate contact with the stranded pilgrims” and their operators, arrange food, shelter, medical care and legal help, and organise their early return home on humanitarian grounds. He also wanted action against operators who had failed their customers.
From Rijiju, he sought coordination between the Minority Affairs and External Affairs ministries and the Jeddah consulate, an advisory to State Haj Committees to help families, enforcement of operators’ return-travel obligations and emergency money from welfare funds.
The government has not publicly responded to the letters. On Thursday the Indian Consulate in Jeddah set up an additional control room in Makkah for Umrah travellers caught up in the disruption.
Travel in the kingdom has been thrown into confusion by repeated strikes claimed by the Yemen-based Houthi rebels on Saudi airports, oil sites and military targets. India has condemned the attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, and its embassy has told Indians in the country to follow the instructions of local authorities.