The head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, Ali Erbaş, had stated last week that approximately 21 thousand Turkish nationals were in Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage and were expected to return by the 15th of March. The next day, AKP’s Minister of Health declared that among the arrived there was one case of Covid-19-positive detected.
Regarding the needs for quarantine, the officials proved to be unprepared and imprudent. One witness told on 16th that the passengers on a plane carrying 66 pilgrims to Samsun were only inspected upon the initiative of other customers. The source also added that the emergency line established for Corona-informing did not properly function and the plane was dragged into panic as the pilgrims were mostly unmasked elderly people coughing, etc.
Student dorms were urgently evacuated so that the newly-arrived pilgrims could accommodate during the isolation term. Students were forcibly taken out from their place leaving their stuff behind without any monetary resource provided. Several dormitories in İstanbul, Ankara, Antalya, and many other central cities were designated as quarantine areas for Corona-suspicious arrivals. According to the reports, 315 individuals were taken to isolation in Kayseri as 180 were quarantined in Isparta.
The students forced out of their flats suffered being dragged from place to place. Although the universities were suspended, most of the students decided to stay in their school-town considering the pandemic. Now that they have to leave their dorms, their accommodation emerged as a new problem. The officials in Antalya, for instance, decided to concentrate the dorms into one central block bringing in other students from outside which were criticized by the students as a precaution which could end up with a higher spread rate amongst them. The disinfection measures were also stated to be lacking in these facilities.
On the other hand, the isolated citizens openly share their discontent with their conditions. In the initial period, the distribution of nourishment led to confluence scenes. The people were recorded to be arguing with health officials or the police. In Konya, people forced the gates of the restricted area which almost ended up clashing as the police eventually set a barricade to prevent the crowd. The people put in these dormitories complain that there is not any thorough investigation that could separate potential or factual corona-positive cases from non-infected people in the quarantined area. They argue that all are treated the same way which almost guarantees a healthy person that is put under quarantine becomes corona-infected.
There are also pilgrims that try to skip quarantine measures. Apart from the gathered escape attempt in Konya which ended in police intervention, 28 other pilgrims were spotted in Çorum on their way to their hometown Erzurum as they dodged the officials and quarantine precautions. There are also several unconfirmed reports on individual slip-through attempts from health facilities and regular controls.
Several sources also report that in some incidents AKP officials, MPs, and mayors did not refrain from openly visiting pilgrimage returners and sharing their visit on social media.
At the beginning of March, Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended Umrah visits and restricted Masjid-i Nabvi due to Covid-19 for both foreigners and Saudi citizens. According to official announcements, the last batch of visitors arrived in Turkey in mid-March posing the biggest potential source for the pandemic in Turkey.
