The National Committee for Haj and Umrah said 40 Haj companies’ tents in Arafat were affected by the rains that fell there two days ago with some tents completely ruined and having to be replaced.

Committee head Osama Falali said some of the tents were partially affected when floods damaged furniture and carpets. He said he expected a meeting of the affected companies' representatives and the Ministry of Haj to be held as requested by the companies.

He called on the ministry to tackle the damages resulting from floods as “there’s no time and companies are working on these damages.”

Domestic Haj companies have observations regarding the ministry’s organizational performance at this time every year. This year they objected to the mechanism of the distribution of tent-allocated locations in Mina.

“Some 70 domestic pilgrim companies were affected by this mechanism.

To deal with the situation and have advanced locations, some of the companies formed unions and brought their pilgrims together, but this caused a reduction in services, as several missions are sharing one bathroom and one kitchen.”

In a separate development, Eastern Province police have arrested 47 people working in 31 unlicensed Haj catering missions.

Those arrested include 24 expatriates. Of the offices raided, 14 were in Al-Ahsa, five in Dammam, eight in Hafr Al-Batin, three in Alkhobar and one in Al-Jubail.

Those arrested were carrying sums totaling SR90,000.

EP police recently arrested 2,926 people involved in different cases.

They included 437 Haj violators (241 foreigners), 16 drivers of illegal pilgrims and 149 illegal residents.