Saudi Gazette report

MAKKAH — As many as 7.65 million Umrah visas were issued since the beginning of the season in October until June 13, the Ministry of Haj and Umrah has announced, according to local press reports on Saturday.

The ministry said as many as 7.39 pilgrims have arrived of whom a total of 6.88 million have departed for their respective homes after performing their rituals.

It said 504,809 pilgrims are still present in the Kingdom. Out of it 278,368 are in Makkah and 226,441 in Madinah.

The ministry said some 10,945 Saudi employees, consisting of 9,065 men and 1,880 women who were working for the Haj and Umrah companies were serving the pilgrims.

According to the ministry, 6,550,520 pilgrims have arrived by air through King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah and Prince Muhammad Bin Abdul Aziz International Airport in Madinah while 707,955 pilgrims arrived by land and 135,182 by sea.

The ministry said, Pakistan with 1,657,777 pilgrims tops all the countries in the number of Umrah pilgrims followed by Indonesia with 967,125 and India with 650,480 pilgrims.

It said there were 539,045 pilgrims from Egypt, 365,628 from Algeria, 338,618 from Yemen, 321,494 from Turkey, 278,674 from Malaysia, 277, 571 from Iraq and 216,165 from Sudan.