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The government of Indonesia will allow pilgrims to travel to Saudi Arabia for umrah (minor haj) later this month, a move that experts say is risky given the threat of the emerging Omicron variant, which has been detected in the gulf country.
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The Religious Affairs Ministry’s haj and umrah director general Hilman Latief said there were no plans to restrict umrah pilgrims at the moment and the first batch of pilgrims were expected to depart in the middle of this month. “We’ll push through with the plan [to send umrah pilgrims], since there is currently no travel ban between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia,” Hilman told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Jakarta post
