Safa Hajj group: Working to get Visas at the earliest

Safa Hajj and Umra group has stated that they were still working on trying to get the Visas for pilgrims who are all set to depart to Saudi Arabia.

A large majority of pilgrims who paid to travel for umra from Safa group were scheduled to travel on Thursday morning. However, the group announced the last-minute cancellation of the trip at dawn via a message to the pilgrims’ Viber group.

The message read that no visas have been issued by Saudi Arabia’s Umrah visa-issuing body to the group so far, therewith, instructing pilgrims scheduled to depart this morning against going to the airport. It further stated that additional information regarding the trip will be shared at a later time.

Addressing this, the Managing Director of Safa group Abdulla Naseem said that so far, they have not received the visas. 

He went on to state that even now they were working on getting them, as well as seats from the airline. 

Due to this last minute cancellation, those who have made payments for umra have been voicing their anger. 

The Islamic Ministry is also looking into the case. 

 Over 130 pilgrims from Safa group were scheduled to depart today. Out of these pilgrims, some were scheduled to depart this morning while the others are scheduled to depart tonight.

Pilgrims scheduled to depart will be performing Umrah through the last 15 days of Ramadan and the first six days of Shawwal. The price for the trip is MVR 40,000.

Maldives has previously seen pilgrims defrauded by Hajj and Umrah groups in scams where pilgrims have not been sent to Umrah or Hajj after acquiring payment from them.