JEDDAH, 27 March 2005 — Foreign travel and tourism agencies that provide Haj services have been instructed by Haj Minister Dr. Fouad Al-Farsy to sign individual contracts with pilgrims, explaining their services, in order to avoid malpractices.
Deputy Haj Minister Hatem Qadi said Al-Farsy’s instruction would help solve many problems being faced by foreign pilgrims. At present most of the 1,300 foreign Haj service providers do not sign such individual contracts.
This has caused problems for foreign pilgrims. There were reports that many companies had failed to provide accommodation to pilgrims in Makkah, forcing them to squat on streets and courtyards of the Grand Mosque.
Qadi said Haj Ministry officials were currently reviewing the performance of foreign Haj service providers and expected that some 60 foreign companies would be barred this year in light of complaints of discrepancies and mismanagement against them.
“We will punish all defaulters irrespective of whether they are Saudi or foreign companies,” Okaz Arabic daily quoted Qadi as saying.
During the last Haj season, the ministry had to assign a new local Haj company to look after more than 2,700 pilgrims after another company, which brought them, failed to deliver on its promises. Fake firms complicate the problem leaving many pilgrims in the holy sites without food or shelter.
“This is a problem that we face every year. In Mina, many pilgrims are left squatting under bridges and in streets. Pilgrims should make sure whether the companies they have contracted are licensed or not,” one Saudi official said. He urged the ministry to launch an awareness campaign among pilgrims about fake companies.
Meanwhile, the King Fahd Haj Research Institute said it had conducted more than 300 studies and research works since its inception to help the government and Haj related agencies to provide the best possible services to pilgrims. More than two million pilgrims, with 1.3 million of them from abroad, performed Haj this year.
Dr. Osama Al-Bar, dean of the institute, said the construction and engineering department of the institute, conducts studies on sites and buildings in Makkah, Madinah and other holy places.
“The institute has developed a continuous traffic system to facilitate transportation of pilgrims between the two holy sites of Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifa,” he said.
The redesigning of the Jamrat (stoning) area in Mina is another major project carried out by the institute, Al-Bar said. He also noted the institute’s efforts to enhance the Haj awareness of pilgrims.
