JEDDAH — A committee looking into violations committed by organizations while serving domestic pilgrims issued 153 decisions against them during the last Haj season. Out of these, 126 decisions concerned companies and establishments licensed to serve pilgrims. The supervisory authorities noticed some violations while there were complaints about others. Sixty-eight companies and establishments have been fined between SR10,000 and SR50,000. Also, the committee decided to force several companies to compensate pilgrims affected by their poor services. The percentage of compensation varied between 15 and 60 percent of the money charged to these pilgrims. Bandar Al-Hajjar, Minister of Haj, confirmed that a number of companies and establishments were subjected to several kinds of penalties. The committee issued 27 penalties to unlicensed companies that were serving domestic pilgrims. This included fining the organizers of these groups between SR15,000 and SR100,000 depending on the seriousness of the violation and the harm caused. The violating expatriates who set up these groups will be deported from the Kingdom.
