KUALA LUMPUR – Only a small fraction of the 19,000 Malaysians who were affected by the temporary suspension on umrah earlier this year had suffered losses, the Dewan Rakyat heard.
Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said the vast majority of the affected individuals have already had their bookings either refunded or rescheduled, including flight tickets and accommodations.
Nancy said only those whose scheduled travels were supposed to take place between January 8 and 14, when the month-long umrah suspension first took effect, incurred losses as their requests for refund were too short of notice.
The government made the announcement on January 1, with the temporary umrah ban taking place from January 8 to February 7.
“For pilgrims who were supposed to travel after January 14, they had ample time to make the necessary arrangements,” she said today.
According to Nancy, the government had also agreed to grant a consolation payment to those who did not manage to reschedule their travel or seek a refund.
She said while a total of 8,500 applications were filed by the pilgrims who were not able to go for umrah through the various tourism associations, screening conducted by the ministry found there were many duplications and those that did not meet the criteria.
“In all, those who have been identified as eligible (for the consolation payment) is far lower (than 8,500), meaning the number of people affected is minimal.”
Nancy was responding to questions from Datuk Ahmad Nazlan Idris (Jerantut-BN) on the losses incurred by travel agencies and prospective pilgrims due to the temporary suspension of umrah.
Meanwhile, Nancy also rubbished claims that the government is consistently changing its standard operating procedures (SOPs) for umrah to the point of causing inconvenience to pilgrims.
The minister noted that since umrah travelling was allowed again beginning October 18 last year, the government had only amended the SOP once, namely during the temporary suspension earlier this year.
Earlier, she had said that the suspension was necessary to allow the government time to assess the impact of the Omicron variant. – The Vibes, March 3, 2022
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