Pilgrims in UAE ignore Mers advisory

Dubai: Muslims in the UAE are ignoring the advice by Saudi Arabia that the elderly and the very young should not travel to Makkah for Umrah this year, say pilgrimage operators.

The crowd of pilgrims is building up as Ramadan is just a month away and starts on June 28, say operators who are already sending hundreds of people for Umrah.

Every week fleets of buses are leaving the UAE from various emirates to Saudi Arabia. The operators also send hundreds more pilgrims on weekly flights from Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi.

Umrah, also known as the minor pilgrimage, can be performed any time of the year.

Jaffar Seddiq of Al Shahba Haj and Umrah in Deira, Dubai, said he is presently processing passports of families that include children for the minor pilgrimage.

“People are worried but not afraid,” he said, when asked if he has noticed any drop in the number of pilgrims this year over fears about the Mers Coronavirus (Mers-CoV).

An Arab woman said no Muslim will heed the advice. “It is our duty to perform Haj and the elderly cannot wait for the virus to disappear,” she said. However, she said people should heed advice to delay going on umrah, as it can be performed at any time.

The Saudi advisory includes children under seven years of age, pregnant women, and the elderly whose immunity is compromised, which means those suffering from diabetes, heart disease and other chronic diseases.

The Ministry of Health in the UAE has not issued any advisory and Umrah operators say they have not received any circular from either the health or the Haj authorities.

But the UAE ministries are following the advice of the Saudi health ministry to curtail travel this year.

Abdul Rauf, a pilgrimage operator at Al Yarmook Umrah and Haj in Abu Dhabi, said the Mers advisory has not affected anyone. The operator said people in this part of the UAE have also been affected by the virus.

Mers has claimed the lives of more than a hundred people in Saudi Arabia since it emerged in 2012

Government authorities and international health experts are to meet in Geneva to decide whether the virus is a “public health emergency of international concern”.

—With inputs from Abdulla Rasheed, Abu Dhabi Bureau Chief