CAIRO – Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on June 22 ordered that 16 tourism companies be stripped of their licences and their managers referred to the public prosecutor’s office for illegally facilitating pilgrims’ travel to Mecca, the Cabinet said.
The order came after various countries reported a total of more than 1,100 deaths, many attributed to high heat, during this year’s haj.
Arab diplomats told AFP earlier this week that Egyptians accounted for 658 deaths, 630 of them unregistered pilgrims.
“The Prime Minister has ordered for the licences of these companies to be revoked, their managers to be referred to the public prosecutor, and the imposition of a fine to benefit the families of the pilgrims who died because of them,” the Egyptian Cabinet said in a statement.
It said the rise in the deaths of unregistered Egyptian pilgrims stemmed from some companies which “organised the haj programmes using a personal visit visa, which prevents its holders from entering Mecca” via official channels.
On June 21, a senior Saudi official defended the Gulf kingdom’s management of the pilgrimage.
Haj permits are allocated to countries on a quota system and distributed to individuals via a lottery.
Even for those who can obtain them, the steep costs spur many pilgrims to attempt the haj without a permit, though they risk arrest and deportation if caught by Saudi security forces.
The irregular route, which can save pilgrims thousands of dollars, has become increasingly popular since 2019, when Saudi Arabia introduced a general tourism visa that has made it easier to enter the Gulf kingdom.