Farsi, Minister of Haj, has said that 19 cases have been processed against unlicensed Haj companies and the organizers have been fined a total of SR835,000. Organizers of three unlicensed companies were referred to relevant bodies for more investigations before officials reach decisions, he added. The minister said that the committee assigned to look into the violations related to pilgrim services has issued 147 decisions including 125 against domestic pilgrim companies. The decisions were based on monitoring bodies' observations and pilgrims' complaints, he added. Three companies had their licenses revoked, three received one- to two-year suspensions and 52 were fined from SR10,000 to SR100,000. Within the framework of decisions, 16 companies were ordered to compensate some pilgrims by returning fees for services that were not provided, Dr. Al-Farsi said, adding that several companies were punished with more than one of the sanctions. The committee also decided to reduce by 10 percent the percentage of pilgrims one company can serve.
