Hajj agencies draw flak for poor service

Around one lakh Bangladeshis go to Saudi Arabia every year to perform hajj and pay private agencies a good amount for better services during the holy ritual.

Unfortunately, most of the hajj agents do not meet the pilgrims' expectations and some even face penalties from both the governments of Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia for their mismanagement.

Even then the agencies hardly care for improving their services and rather remain indifferent to reducing sufferings of the pilgrims.

Many pilgrims have again expressed grave dissatisfaction over the agencies' services to them in performing the holy ritual this year.

Talking to The Daily Star at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the last several days, returning pilgrims alleged the agencies had failed to provide them with better accommodation, food and transport.

They also brought allegations against the agencies of appointing inefficient guides and failing to maintain smooth flight schedules.

Selim Azad, 35, along with 25 others went to Saudi Arabia to perform hajj by private agency M Setara Trade International based in Dhaka. Each of them paid Tk 3 lakh, but the agency did not provide them with services up to the mark.

“The hajj agent did not give us minimum services except sending us to Saudi Arabia. It could neither arrange better accommodation nor provide us with better food,” he alleged.

Nizam Ahmed, another pilgrim of the same agency, alleged that the agency had failed to send an efficient guide with them to give them proper directions.

“The guide did not know the locations properly. He had rather added to our sufferings for more than two hours on way to Jamarat from Mujdalifa that takes only half an hour,” he said.

Some other pilgrims of the same agency also alleged that they had faced severe hurdles in their return journey to Dhaka from Jeddah as the flights were not arranged timely.

“They [agency people] have increased our sufferings even in the return flight. We had to spend a whole night,” Fazlur Rahman, another pilgrim, said.

His wife Arifa Sultana echoed the same. “We got a lot of pain for the worst services provided by the agency. They did not look after us at all,” she told The Daily Star on September 29.

The couple paid Tk 6 lakh to the Bangladeshi agency for the pilgrimage.

Pilgrim Solaiman Ahmed, 65, from Comilla paid Tk 3 lakh to a private agency with the promise of special services.

“In the beginning they were good. But their services, especially food and transport in hajj area, gradually deteriorated,” he alleged.

Many other pilgrims shared almost the same experiences and urged the government to look into these matters.

The Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab), the government-approved body for the private hajj agents, has fixed the minimum cost for this year's hajj at Tk 2.96 lakh per head but did not set the maximum limit.

The costs include airfare, Muallem fee, transport fee and some other services in Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.

But they did not limit the costs for the pilgrims' accommodation and food. It gave an option for the agents and the pilgrims for negotiations to reach an agreement for those services.

According to the agreements, the pilgrims paid the money to the hajj agents, but many of them did not provide the services as agreed upon by both sides.

Haab President Mohammad Ibrahim Bahar also admitted that they had received complaints of bad services against some agencies.

“The agents always try to provide better services to the pilgrims. Sometimes some agents cannot do it for some reasons. Despite that, we want the religious affairs ministry to investigate the allegations,” he told The Daily Star.