The three Muslim leaders who recently returned from Venezuela after being detained there want the Government to endorse their visa applications to the Saudia Arabian authorities so they can go on the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia next month. Imam Hamza Mohammed of the Montrose Masjid said so last week.
Mohammed, along with Bro Abdul Salaam of the Marabella mosque and Imam Sheik Hassan Hamid, was detained in Venezuela since March 19, along with a group of other T&T Muslims, under Venezuela’s terrorism law. Government intervened and 15 of the group—mainly women and children—were released. The three imams were released last month and returned to T&T, though five others are still detained in Venezuela, which has sought certain information about them.
A hearing scheduled to have taken place last Tuesday concerning these five was postponed, Mohammed said. No date has been set for the next hearing. Meanwhile, Mohammed said he and the two other imams as well as other Muslims want Government’s assistance with the visas they need to go to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj next month.
He said they had been granted “royal visas” from Saudi authorities to go last year, but those weren’t used and they want Government to endorse the visas. He said dialogue had been taking place on this since April and the issuing of visas would end in two weeks, so the matter needed to be dealt with soon. Mohammed said Saudi representatives were currently in T&T and he hoped Government would assist.
MINISTER: No answer yet from Saudis
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran said Friday two Saudi representatives were indeed in T&T to process visas. He said when he met with the deputy Saudi Arabian foreign minister in July on the issue, he had asked for an increase in the visa quota for T&T and a review of the issue system. Although the matter was followed up, he said there had been no response. “It’s up to the Saudi Arabian government. We now have to wait on them,” Dookeran said.
Govt requests more visas
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has requested more visas from the Saudi Arabian government for local Muslims to take part in the annual Hajj pilgrimage, a release from the ministry said. “In a diplomatic note dated September 9, 2014, sent to the Saudi Arabian Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has formally requested an additional quota of visas to be granted ‘for the poor and needy as well as persons requiring special services’,” the release said.
“Government was able to get officials of the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Caracas to come to Port-of-Spain to process the visa applications. This still did not meet the complete approval of local Muslims who kept asking for an additional quota of visas.” The release acknowledged that local Muslims have been unhappy with the number of visas granted for the pilgrimage in previous years, and said the ministry is “hopeful” of a favourable response from the Saudi officials.
