Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli ordered the licenses to be revoked of sixteen travel agencies that organized illegal hajj trips after hundreds of Egyptians died during the annual pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, Al Ahram reported, as quoted by BTA.
The managers of the companies will be brought to court, the statement of the cabinet also states. The decision was made during a meeting of a working group formed on the case by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The government officially announced the death of 31 people out of a total of 50,752 registered Egyptian pilgrims, writes the online publication "Enterprise News". AFP quoted an unnamed Arab diplomat as saying the number of casualties exceeded six hundred, most of them unregistered pilgrims.
So far, the government task force has "identified sixteen travel agencies that organized the travel of unregistered pilgrims outside the official Hajj rules and did not provide them with any services," said cabinet spokesman Mohamed El Homsani in a televised telephone interview. ;Sada al balad". He added that the prime minister had ordered the companies' licenses to be revoked immediately and fines to be imposed in favor of the families of the deceased.
According to the task force, most of the deceased entered Saudi Arabia on individual visas instead of the special Hajj visas. The reason for their death is that they did not receive the medical services provided during the pilgrimage and they traveled to Mecca on foot on desert roads during the heat to avoid being caught by the Saudi authorities.
Hajj, which is the largest annual pilgrimage in the world, is one of the five pillars of Islam. It is believed that every Muslim should do it at least once in his life if he has the opportunity. However, travel costs have increased significantly in recent years, notes "Al Ahram".