Umrah Pilgrims' Bus Catches Fire, Ministry of Hajj Requests Compensation for Indonesians in Madinah

The Office of Hajj Affairs of the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah (Kemenhaj) has requested that the relevant parties provide fair compensation to Indonesian umrah pilgrims impacted by the bus fire while travelling to Madinah, Saudi Arabia. “We are communicating with the muassasah parties so that the pilgrims receive fair compensation, considering that all their carried belongings were also burned in this incident,” said Hajj Technical Staff of the Hajj Affairs Office (KUH) M Ilham Effendy in his statement in Jakarta on Saturday (28/3/2026). Nevertheless, he revealed that all 24 Indonesian pilgrims on the bus were safe and successfully evacuated quickly. The fire incident occurred when the bus was about 50 kilometres before entering the city of Madinah, specifically after passing the last checkpoint from the direction of Makkah, on Thursday (26/3/2026) local time. According to him, the driver acted swiftly by stopping the vehicle when signs of malfunction appeared and immediately evacuating all passengers.