SR500 for a wheelchair to Jamarat Bridge

By Ashwaq Al-Twairqi Okaz/Saudi Gazette MINA — Dozens of expatriate workers charge pilgrims who want to be pushed on a wheelchair SR500 in Mina. Ayoub Al-Zabi, a Jordanian pilgrim, said he had seen countless wheelchairs on the first day of throwing pebbles and assumed they were free of charge. When he asked one of the men standing close to the wheelchairs to push his pregnant wife to Al-Jamarat Bridge, he was shocked when the man asked him to pay SR600. “After talking with him, I realized they were not volunteers. I had to pay SR500 to get my wife pushed on a wheelchair to Al-Jamarat Bridge and back to the camp,” he said. Sayed Al-Banhawi, an Egyptian pilgrim, paid SR800 to a Pakistani to push him on a wheelchair in the afternoon. “I think he overcharged me because of my weight,” Al-Banhawi said. Abdulaziz Al-Breaky, a Kuwaiti pilgrim, paid SR3,800 for four wheelchairs in order to get his mother, mother-in-law and two old relatives pushed to Al-Jamarat Bridge and back to the camp. “All four are old and cannot walk. They collapsed and felt great fatigue after Arafat Day and could not proceed with the pebble-throwing ritual,” Al-Breaky said. Fadhl Ameen, who pushes a wheelchair, said the price depends on the weight of the pilgrim, noting that SR500 is not a big amount, given the scorching heat of the sun.