Ibrahim Alawi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH – The security authorities have started taking penal action against 4,100 pilgrims who performed Haj without a permit.



Maj. Gen. Ayed Al-Harbi, commander of the Passport Forces for Haj, said that the name of these people have been included in the list of those against whom punitive measures will be taken soon.



The authorities earlier disclosed that those who are caught performing Haj without permit would be deported and banned from entering the Kingdom for 10 years. Similarly, owners of vehicles used to smuggle illegal pilgrims to the holy sites would be detained and fined, and their vehicles will be impounded.



Al-Harbi said that a total of 525,558 pilgrims arrived in the Kingdom to perform Haj by Tuesday. A number of pilgrims were sent back after discovering that they came on fake Haj visas or defying a ban after being deported from the Kingdom.



Meanwhile, a total of 80 residential buildings were put under the blacklist by the committee for the pilgrims’ accommodation after discovering that they are unfit for accommodating Haj pilgrims.



Interior Minister Prince Muhammad Bin Naif chaired a meeting of the Supreme Haj Committee in Riyadh on Tuesday. The meeting discussed a report about construction of buildings on mountaintops of Mina to find more space for pilgrims in the tent city.



Meanwhile, exploiting the need of a large number of Saudis and expatriates to register for low-cost Haj, brokers in Jeddah have increased the rate by more than 40 percent, reported a section of the Arabic press on Tuesday quoting market sources.



The low-cost Haj ceiling has been fixed at SR2,750 per individual. But sources from the low-cost Haj companies told Al-Madinah Arabic daily that the number of domestic pilgrims allotted to them was very little so they could only compensate by increasing their rate. They said the number of the domestic pilgrims, according to official statistics, this year will be 174,556, out of which the low-cost Haj companies were only given a total of 41,000 pilgrims.



Abdulrahman Al-Asmari, a Saudi, said a large number of domestic Haj companies stopped taking pilgrims about a week ago. “They put signboards in front of their offices that there will be no more registration for domestic pilgrims,” he said.



Mohammed Al-Shihri, another Saudi, said he is looking for other options as low-cost Haj companies stopped taking any pilgrim about 10 days ago. Al-Shihri urged the Haj Ministry to assign more pilgrims to the low-cost Haj companies.



Hamid Al-Hazli, an employee of a low-cost Haj company, said many pilgrims who could not register for low-cost Haj will fall prey to black market brokers.



He said that during the last days of registration, the rates of some companies might go up to more than SR25,000.



Ahmed Aljohani, an employee at a Haj service-providing company, said the registration was stopped a long time ago because the low-cost Haj companies were not given enough tents in Mina.



Abdul Karim Khatim, a Saudi, said he ran into a number of brokers near a Haj company’s offices who offered to register him at a low-cost Haj company if he was willing to pay an additional amount of SR1,500.



Ministry of Haj has approved 62 companies this year to offer low-cost Haj packages. The ministry has expanded the low-cost Haj program to accommodate 41,000 pilgrims this year, up from only 17,000 last year.



The ministry asked Saudis and expatriates wishing to perform low-cost Haj this year to register their names at its website, which has been created specially for this purpose.



The ministry said it would direct the intending domestic pilgrims to the officially accredited Haj service companies which are most suitable for them.



After registration, every pilgrim will be given a secret number which will be automatically conveyed to the Haj service provider.



The pilgrims will no longer have to visit the companies themselves as was the case in the past. The ministry will choose the suitable companies for them this year.