18/01/2021 Mecca’s migrants face economic uncertainty as religious tourism continues to be suspended | Migrant-Rights.org Covid-19 Mecca’s migrants face economic uncertainty as religious tourism continues to be suspended By Rabiya Ja ery On June 22, 2020 Tarek A. has been driving Muslim pilgrims to the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the past three decades. The Pakistani migrant moved to Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s, when he was in his 20s, and took up a job as a private taxi driver in Mecca, home to Islam’s holiest site. He has been supporting his four younger siblings and his own family, who still live in their village in rural Punjab. “I came here on an Umrah visa and stayed back,” he says. “Things were di erent back then and a lot of people were doing this. There were a lot of jobs available and the rules were laxer, so just a er a year of doing odd jobs I managed to nd someone to sponsor me and have been working as a driver since.” Even though the majority of Saudi Arabia’s wealth comes from oil, pilgrims visiting Mecca and Medina are also critical to the Kingdom’s economy. https://www.migrant-rights.org/2020/06/meccas-migrants-face-economic-uncertainty-as-religious-tourism-continues-to-be-suspended/ 1/4

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