Egypt to prosecute travel agencies over hajj ‘scam’: government

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Saturday ordered the deprivation of licenses of 16 tourism companies and referred their managers to the prosecutor’s office in connection with illegal pilgrimages to Mecca, the government said.

The order came after countries whose citizens performed the hajj this year reported more than 1,100 deaths, many of them attributed to the baking heat in Saudi Arabia.

Friday’s AFP tally, which included official statements and reports from diplomats involved in the response, put the death toll at 1,126, with more than half of them from Egypt.

Arab diplomats told AFP earlier this week that 658 people had been killed in Egypt, including 630 unregistered pilgrims.

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ordered a “crisis cell” headed by Madbouly to investigate the deaths of Egyptian pilgrims.

“The Prime Minister ordered the revoking of these companies’ licenses, bringing their managers before the prosecutor and imposing a fine on the families of pilgrims who died because of them,” reads the government’s statement.

It said the increase in the number of deaths of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims was due to the activities of some companies that “organized hajj programs using a personal visa that prevented the holder from entering Mecca” through official channels.

– 50,000 Egyptians registered –

A government statement said that more than 50,000 Egyptians officially participated in the pilgrimage and that “31 people died due to chronic diseases.”

It said travel agencies accused of organizing unauthorized hajj visits did not provide adequate services, “which caused fatigue of unregistered pilgrims due to high temperatures.”

On Friday, a senior Saudi official defended the Gulf kingdom’s management of the pilgrimage.

Hajj permits are allocated to countries on a quota system and distributed to individuals through a lottery.

Even for those who can obtain them, the high costs encourage many to undertake hajj without permission, even though they risk arrest and deportation if caught.

The irregular route, which can save pilgrims thousands of dollars, has become increasingly popular since 2019, when Saudi Arabia introduced a general tourist visa to ease entry to the Persian Gulf kingdom.

A senior Saudi official said the government had confirmed the deaths of 577 people during the two busiest days of the pilgrimage: Saturday, when pilgrims gathered for hours of prayers under the blazing sun on Mount Arafat, and Sunday, when they participated in the “stoning of the devil.” ritual in Mina.

“This happened in the face of difficult weather conditions and very high temperatures,” the official said, confirming that the figure of 577 was partial and did not include the entire hajj, which formally ended on Wednesday.

Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam that every Muslim of means must perform at least once in their life.

Saudi officials previously said 1.8 million pilgrims participated this year, a similar number to last year, and 1.6 million came from abroad.

The timing of the hajj is determined by the Islamic lunar calendar, moving forward each year in the Gregorian calendar.

For several years, rituals, mainly outdoors, have been disappearing during the hot Saudi summer.

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