Saudi Arabia: Pilgrims suffer from illegal Haj house rentals |
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Jeddah - Looking forward to the financial benefit that the Haj season brings, residents of the holy city of Makkah rent their houses to Haj companies each year.
Omaymah Abdulateef, 50, a housewife who has been renting her home to pilgrims for the past 30 years, said "renting houses to pilgrims is an old Makkah tradition. In the past during the Haj season, our grandfathers used to give their homes to pilgrims for free as a way of helping them."
According to Abdulateef, people who rent their houses usually spend the Haj season in Jeddah because it is the nearest city, or they move in with one of their relatives.
While renting houses without the approval of the Haj Ministry may benefit the house owner, it can be a problem for pilgrims who may be forced to walk for long hours in order to reach the holy areas.
"The companies arranged for us to live in a house located in Al-Aziziyah district in Makkah, and they used to make us walk from Makkah to Mina every day," said Tari Wari an Indonesian pilgrim.
Wari and many pilgrims from other countries want to perform Haj as inexpensively as possible, and that is why they search for the cheapest Haj companies which can result in them facing difficulties and health problems, such as, sunstroke.
Aziza Mabrook, a 56-year-old pilgrim from Egypt, said that she has been saving money to perform Haj since she was 25.
"I am an old woman who cannot walk, and my dream is to perform Haj and visit the two holy cities," she said. "I paid all the money I had, but I was shocked because my Haj accommodations were not like those of my friends."
Mabrook was not able to perform Haj the way she wanted because she was not able to walk all the way to Mina from the location in Makkah where the illegal company gave her housing.
"Many pilgrims died or went to the hospital because of sunstroke. It was a long way to walk in the sun, and with all of that, I simply could not make it to Mina and stay until the next day. Now I have no money to return to my family in Egypt," she said.
"The problem is that some companies lie to pilgrims and take their money without providing them with a proper place to stay," said Talal Abdulmalik. "They also deal with illegal pilgrims who live in Saudi Arabia or came on an Umrah visa, and that is why they try to hide them from the government."
According to Hassan Bakri, the head of the Ministry of Haj in Madina, the officials of the Madina branch are cooperating with the authorities to stop Haj companies from renting houses inside Makkah for pilgrims.
"We have started 24-hour tours around the pilgrimage centers aiming to stop the middlemen who rent illegal houses to Haj companies," said Bakri.
Jamal Abdulmalik from the Southeast Asia Haj office said that renting houses to pilgrims illegally can result in punishment from the government, and may lead to the company being prevented from operating during the next Haj.
"Pilgrims these days know about Haj and the rules they should follow. That is why it is not easy to fool them anymore," he added.
Samera Muhammad, a Pakistani pilgrim, said that she paid her money after the company told her that she would live inside Mina and would not face any difficulties.
"We did not know that they lied to us until we found ourselves living in a small apartment in Makkah. The Haj had already begun and so we had no choice but to face reality," she added.
"We have specific rules for Haj companies governing where pilgrims should live," said Bakri, adding that the rooms should be clean and healthy and meet the standards set for pilgrims' habitation.
© The Saudi Gazette 2008
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