Some 20 Umrah companies face the prospect of heavy fines, possibly even having their licenses revoked by the Ministry of Haj because they have not provided the services that foreign pilgrims had paid them for.
The news is welcome. Stories abound of pilgrims arriving to find that the accommodation is not what they paid for or, worse, non-existent. In some cases there is no one to meet them at the airport and no transport either. This newspaper regularly reports such stories — homeless pilgrims forced to camp out in Makkah and Madinah, people packed six to eight in a room despite having paid for two to a room, agents having left it too late to find accommodation because of sheer incompetence or laziness, pilgrims forced to find accommodation for themselves despite having booked and paid for it. The Ministry of Haj reports that this past Ramadan and in the run-up to it, it had to find hotel rooms for 10,000 stranded pilgrims, forced to squat around the Grand Mosque in Makkah because their agents had not delivered.
There are also pilgrims who cut corners, who come expecting free food, free transport and free accommodation. There are also pilgrims who are only too happy to squat, who just want to be near the Grand Mosque in Makkah or the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. The reason for squatting is thus not a clear-cut issue.
There are plenty of excellent operators. However, when it comes to cowboy agents, there are no grey areas. They can and must be dealt with. They give the whole profession and also the Kingdom a bad name. If the pilgrims from abroad feel badly treated because of the shortcomings or greed of their agents, they are going to associate it with the Kingdom.
Pilgrims are not just guests of the Kingdom; they are guests of Allah. They deserve the best. Standards must be tightened. An unmistakable message needs to go out that crooked, grasping agents, even just plain incompetent ones, will not be tolerated. Those who do not perform must be held to account. Agents have taken the money; they must provide the service. It is in the interest of the good operators that the rotten apples are removed. The actions of cowboys stain their reputation.
Of course, there are some aspects beyond the Kingdom’s control. The problem is sometimes back home where local conmen, pretending to have links to legitimate Umrah companies here or claiming that they can fix the entire visit, take would-be pilgrims for every last cent. It is invariably the poorest who are their victims — people who do not have access to the Internet to check up on who is or is not registered, the ones who do not have the educational skills to know whether someone is conning them or not.
The Kingdom cannot prosecute crooks who are not here. That is the responsibility of the home governments. But it is here that the truth is discovered and the disappointment and pain felt. In tandem with a clampdown on bad operators within the country, the Kingdom ought to start a campaign to encourage foreign governments to clamp down on their local cowboy operators.
