The News, June 24, 2006
Saudi ban on umra visa
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
Email: bbc@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
expected, the government of Saudi Arabia has refused to lift the
ban on Pakistanis below the age of 40 years from performing umra. It
was futile on the part of federal religious affairs minister Mohammad
Ejazul Haq to visit Riyadh to try and make the Saudis change their
mind on the issue. The Saudis formulate their policies after much
thinking and in line with their national interest and decisions once
taken are rarely changed.
Back home, Ejazul Haq sounded defensive when he told re****ters that
the ban would stay because the Saudi government had complained that
over 100,000 Pakistanis had overstayed in Saudi Arabia after reaching
there on the pretext of performing umra. Before leaving for Saudi
Arabia, he had expressed concern over the Pakistan-specific umra
restriction and had promised to take up the matter with the Saudi
authorities. One could understand that he was on a weak wicket and
could only request the Saudis to reverse or relax the ban on under-40
Pakistani citizens wi****ng to perform umra. It was up to the Saudi
government to grant his request and it chose not to do so.
From all indications, it is clear that the Saudi government imposed
the ban without consulting Pakistan. Islamabad has an unequal
relation****p with Riyadh and the Saudi government has repeatedly come
to Pakistan's rescue by offering it oil free or on subsidized rates
and providing financial assistance to it in times of need. The change
in the umra policy means that it would now be the responsibility of
the Pakistan government to enforce the ban at its end and stop its
citizens below 40 from travelling to Saudi Arabia for performing umra.
Those able to reach Saudi Arabia in violation of the ban will be
de****ted and, in the process, earn a bad name for Pakistan.
It is safe to presume that the Saudis tolerated the arrival of young
Pakistanis wanting to perform umra and then overstaying in the hope of
finding gainful employment as long as the problem was manageable.
There surely is a great demand for cheap manpower in Saudi Arabia and
Pakistani workers, along with their South Asian counterparts from
India and Bangladesh, continue to form bulk of the labour required to
run the oil-rich kingdom's industrial, construction, services, farm
and other sectors. The Saudis looked the other way as planeloads of
Pakistanis flew to Jeddah for the onward road journey to Makkah to
perform the obligatory umra before vani****ng and getting absorbed into
local labour-intensive workplaces. Saudi employers needed more and
more working hands to man their businesses and farms and the ruling
royal family was responsive to their needs. One way to appease the
Saudi entrepreneurs was to let umra visitors from Pakistan and
elsewhere stay back and work for them for comparatively lesser wages.
However, the Saudi government had to act when the problem appeared to
be getting out of control. Earlier, half-hearted measures were taken
to streamline the procedure for issuing umra visas. Intending
immigrants and overseas employment agents found ways to beat the law.
It didn't require much intelligence to figure out that young men of
humble origin weren't exactly going to Saudi Arabia to perform umra.
They simply lacked the resources to pay for the costly return air
ticket to Saudi Arabia and arrange for their stay and other expenses
in Makkah while performing umra. It was obvious that these young
Pakistanis, mostly villagers who had never been on a plane before,
were using Umra as a pretext to gain entry into Saudi Arabia hoping to
find work with help from friends, relatives and co-villagers already
working there.
During a recent visit to Saudi Arabia, one had the chance to talk to
some of the young Pakistanis who arrived on umra visas and then stayed
back to work illegally in the holy cities of Makkah and Medina. They
said there was no problem in finding work even after the Saudi
government's announcement that Saudis offering jobs to overstaying
Pakistanis would be punished. There was so much work to do that the
Saudis, or contractors from other countries, had little recourse than
to hire illegal workers to complete projects within the prescribed
time. Though they remain fearful of the Saudi "shurta" (cop) because
many illegally staying Pakistanis have been arrested from workplaces
and homes during regular police raids, the Pakistani workers are
hopeful that economic compulsions and pressure from Saudi employers
would force the government to continue to tolerate illegal labourers.
Having spent a small fortune to reach Saudi Arabia, these hardworking
Pakistanis are willing to do any work in extremely hot weather without
being adequately compensated. They even take in their stride the
abuses that young, spoilt Saudi boys increasingly hurl at them on the
street. Returning home empty-handed after investing so much on their
Saudi misadventure would put them under the burden of credit and
destroy the hopes nurtured by their poor families.
The umra ban on Pakistanis under the age of forty has devastated
families that were hoping to pool resources to send their young males
to Saudi Arabia to earn a decent livelihood. It was a convenient and,
in some cases, affordable way to buy one's entry into Saudi Arabia and
find work. The Pakistan government, as usual, has failed to protect
the interest of its citizens. There is no doubt that many Pakistanis
were misusing the umra facility and working illegally in Saudi Arabia,
but they were not a burden on the booming Saudi economy. In fact, they
have been contributing to the economy and meeting the need for
manpower in im****tant sectors. It was simply a question of demand and
supply and was tolerated as long as it suited Saudi needs. Now that
the Saudi government has embarked on a process of Saudization of the
workforce and is also able to legally get even cheaper manpower from
Bangladesh, India, Thailand and some other Asian and African
countries, it opted to ban umra visas for Pakistanis below the age of
forty.
Pakistan will suffer adverse consequences of the new Saudi policy on
umra visas. Unemployed men unable to find jobs in Saudi Arabia would
stay at home and contribute to the growing number of the jobless. The
country already has a large number of unemployed and underemployed men
and women, though successive governments continue to come up with
hilarious official figures showing an unbelievably low unemployment
percentage. Workers from other countries, particularly Bangladesh,
would take up the new jobs on offer in Saudi Arabia. Pakistan's
impressive foreign exchange earnings, which are frequently highlighted
by the present government as one of its major achievements, but which
we owe to the tireless efforts of our dias****a, would also be
affected.
Overseas Pakistanis, spread all over the world, made it to countries
in the West, Middle East or Far East entirely on their own without any
tangible sup****t from the government. It has been a brave and risky
effort and no words would be enough to praise the Pakistanis who
succeeded against all odds to find work and prosperity in those
faraway and alien lands. Many of them made it to the Gulf countries by
boarding rickety motorboats that navigated the high seas; others
entered Europe by walking across dangerous borders. Some of them used
clever methods to outsmart immigration officials at major entry-points
in the West and elsewhere in a bid to gain access to menial jobs
shunned by locals. Those who died, got arrested, or lost their life
savings while endeavouring to flee poverty and unemployment at home
were quickly forgotten and never compensated. Pakistan has always been
an uncaring state, unwilling to look after its own. It is time
Islamabad gave the overseas Pakistanis their due and made concerted
efforts to help them in times of need. Resolving the umra issue is one
such occasion that calls for intervention from the highest authority
in Pakistan.
[The writer is an executive editor of The News International based in
Peshawar]
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