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Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar announced that the ministry is looking into the issue of providing compensation to pilgrims who fell victim of fraudulent Haj campaigns.
In an interview with a local daily, the minister said that last year, the compensation varied from 15 percent to 60 percent of the pilgrim’s contract value.
The minister reiterated that the decision to limit the number of domestic and foreign pilgrims this year was “exceptional and temporary,” with a view to safeguarding the safety of pilgrims. “We advised each country to limit the number of pilgrims they send to the Kingdom at the rate of one pilgrim per one thousand of their population. We also said that countries that witnessed political unrest would be given their quota in full,” he said.
“I would like to say that the state does not levy any fees on pilgrims and Umrah visitors. All the services provided by the government agencies are free. Actually the Kingdom pays billions of riyals every year for projects in Makkah and Madinah that are aimed at providing the best services and safety and security to the pilgrims,” he added.
“I would like to affirm that no important decisions are taken without consulting all parties concerned, both within the ministry and others. This is to done to assess the impact of the decision on those who will be affected by it. For this purpose, we have set up a ‘coordination council’ comprising representatives from businesses and companies operating for the service of domestic pilgrims to ensure best services”, he said.
He said the ministry had also launched an electronic system for transporting pilgrims for their final departure from King Abd Al Aziz Airport in Jeddah and Prince Muhammad ibn Abd Al Aziz Airport in Madinah. “No bus will be allowed to leave the housing units till it is ensured there is an available flight that is in line with the pilgrims’ arrival time at the airport,” he said.
When asked about the estimated number of foreign and domestic pilgrims, he said: “We expect around 1.4 million pilgrims from abroad, and we estimate the number of domestic pilgrims to be in the vicinity of 105,000.”
Speaking about the Haj train, he said: “During the first six hours, the train was able to transport about half a million pilgrims. The very existence of the train made it possible to stop using a large number of buses. Because of the train, we stopped using more than 30,000 buses that used to move around in the holy areas.”