General Travel News

British Muslim pilgrims remain stranded in Jeddah

April 25- Around 500 British Muslims remained stranded at the King Abdul Aziz Airport in Jeddah and complained of getting little or no help from the government or airline officials, said Charge d'affaires Roddy Drummond on Friday. Drummond said that diplomats were working round the clock to help get the pilgrims on extra flights back to Britain after being stranded at the airport for days given the shutdown of airspace across Europe. Around 1,500 and 2,000 British Muslims in were in Saudi Arabia for umrah at the time of the closure of airspace.
He added that several airlines are flying extra flights in order to send the pilgrims back home. "That has almost solved the problem," said Drummond, who worked all night at the airport on Thursday and Friday to help the stranded travellers. Another 1,000 Britons were also stuck in Saudi Arabia because of the mass flight cancellations, but many were well-off businessmen or had family they could stay with in the kingdom.
Several pilgrims did not have the finances to sustain them in Jeddah for so long and complaind that airlines did not do much to take care of them and neither did the Saudi authorities. "There were a lot of family groups, two and three generations, and large tour groups," making it harder to arrange hotels for many of them, Drummond said.
"It's been absolutely awful. It's the worst experience I've ever had in my life," 35-year-old Rayhanah Runnell, a pilgrim, said on Thursday. "I have a daughter of three and a son of seven years old, and they'd been sleeping on the benches and in the masjid (mosque) downstairs. They treat you like a piece of filth. There's been no sense of humanity whatsoever in this place since we have arrived."
 

More General Travel News
Saudi Arabian Airlines wins best stand design award at Arabian Travel Market 2022
flydubai to operate some flights from Dubai World Central during runway refurbishment project at Dubai International
South Korea Pavilion among top five at Expo 2020 Dubai
Latest Travel News
flydubai to operate some flights from Du...
South Korea Pavilion among top five at E...
Collect souvenirs from the first Emirate...
Featured Sights To See
Olympic Stadium

Olympic Stadium

Montreal, Canada

A white elephant is burdensome possession which cannot be disposed of, and whose upkeep far outweighs its usefulness.  Montreal’s Olympic Stadium is a perfect example of a white elephant.  Construction began in 1973, and was not completed until 1987.  It was barely opened in time for the Olympics, but the tower and retractable roof (which has never actually retracted) remained unfin...

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Paris, France

The largest cemetery in Paris is spread out over nearly 120 acres and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.  Known as the City of the Dead, the cemetery has thousands of elaborately decorated tombstones and mausoleums.  Numerous narrow paths wind through them.  More than 300,000 people are buried here, with the cremated remains of thousands more in the columbarium. The property...

Sharjah Desert Park

Sharjah Desert Park

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

This park is located 26 kilometers from the city centre and has four venues stretched over 1 sq-km; there is a café and picnic facilities on the grounds. The biggest venue here is the Arabian Wildlife Centre (531 1999) which incorporates a zoo and a breeding centre. There is an indoor aviary that houses flamingoes, houbara bustards and Indian rollers while the outdoor enclosures have baboons, stri...

Torre de Belem (Belem Tower)

Torre de Belem (Belem Tower)

Lisbon, Portugal

If Padrao dos Descobrimentos is the monument to Portugal’s Age of Discovery then Torre de Belem symbolises the essence of it. Almost like a stand-alone chess piece, the tower was built to be a defence point along Lisbon’s harbour with Manueline designed filigree stonework and even a stone rhinoceros below the western tower. You can explore the small dungeons and climb the narrow, rickety staircase...