JEDDAH — Ten Pakistani women Umrah pilgrims have been stranded for the past nearly 40 days because their 'mehram' (obligatory companion to whom one cannot marry) vanished with their passports. They are living on charities outside a mosque on the pavement near the Pakistani consulate in the city's Anakish district.| Great charity. Couldn't you bring them indoors? |
"I am all alone in a new land. Even my ticket has expired. I don't know what to do and where to go. Even our own consulate is not helping us out. We went there but instead of helping us they insulted us," she said.
The women have no idea about the travel operator since they just followed their mehrams. "We did not know this will happen to us, otherwise we would not have come here," one of them, Husna Bibi, was reported as saying in a local daily on Friday.
"We went to the Pakistani Consulate and requested the officials to send us home through Tarhil (deportation centre). But they are not helping us. They asked us to bring tickets and inquired about our mehram," she added She said the consulate people told them to go under the Bani Malik Bridge and give themselves up to the police. "We tried that, but our efforts were in vain," she explained. "Even police is not arresting us. They are demanding SR500 per person to help us get deported," said 60-year-old Sada Mai.
| The police won't deport furriners in the country illegally (by their definition)? Who do they think they are, the INS? |
"We are not responsible for any of these women. There is no money in the consulate fund. Their tickets have expired, even Umrah companies are closed from Shawwal 15," Pakistani Welfare Consular Dr Tariq Shuaib Akber was reported as telling the daily. "The consulate is trying its level best to help them," he said. The Pakistani national carrier 'PIA, declined to issue them new tickets in lieu of their expired ones.