No way round the hajj quota

Egyptian pilgrims carrying hajj visas issued abroad were denied entry to Saudi Arabian territory. Although police have arrested the travel agents involved, people are asking whether they are the only culprits. Gihan Shahine joins the search for answers
The hajj (pilgrimage) is the dream of droves of Muslims jostling the world over for the limited number of visas issued by Saudi Arabia each year. This year, however, many Egyptian Muslims saw their dreams of performing one of the five pillars of their religion transformed into a nightmare.
Mohamed Abdel-Aal and his wife Iman had barely bid farewell to their homeland when upon disembarking from their plane in Saudi Arabia, they were refused entry by Saudi authorities. The authorities deported the couple, together with another Egyptian pilgrim on the same flight on 13 February, for carrying allegedly "counterfeit" visas. The visas, it appears, were issued by the Saudi embassy in Berlin.
Investigations revealed that Abdel-Aal and his wife had obtained the visas from a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in the low-income district of Ain Shams, and that the owner of the NGO organised the trip for the couple at a cost of LE22,000. The couple said they had no idea that the visas were issued outside Egypt until they were stopped at the Saudi airport.
Abdel-Aal and his wife are not the only people to have faced such a predicament. Other pilgrims with hajj visas that say they were issued in Berlin were subsequently forbidden to board planes to Saudi Arabia at the Egyptian airport.
On 13 February, Nigerian authorities arrested 103 Egyptian citizens bound for hajj. The would-be pilgrims were arrested in Kano, the Nigerian capital, where they had obtained visas for Saudi Arabia. On 14 February, another 51 pilgrims were stopped at the Cairo airport and prevented from heading for Saudi Arabia because their visas were issued in Vienna.
Saudi authorities explained last week that individuals carrying visas issued in a country other than that of which they were citizens would be denied entry to Saudi territory and they demanded that countries should stick to their pilgrims' quota. To avoid further deportation of pilgrims, the Egyptian authorities have, in response, announced a ban on hajj visas from abroad. Police arrested the owners of no fewer than seven Egyptian travel agencies, and others involved in selling and distributing the visas in question, on charges of fraud and forgery. Some of the detainees were released this week on bail ranging between LE500,000 and LE1 million; those who could not meet bail remain in jail.
Just who the culprits are in this imbroglio is a point of contention. The selling of pilgrimage visas issued by Saudi embassies in foreign countries has been permitted for years; there has never been any official objection to the practice by either the Saudi or Egyptian side.
"The Egyptian quota of pilgrimage visas -- 68,000 -- usually falls short of local demand, while in some foreign countries like Germany, the requests for hajj are fewer," explained Elhamy El- Zayyat, chairman of the Egyptian Travel Agencies Association. Saudi Arabia sets national quotas based on a ratio of 1,000 visas per one million persons. "To satisfy local demand, some Egyptian travel agencies resort to obtaining visas from Saudi embassies in countries where there are few Muslims. The practice has always been widespread and perfectly legal," he said.
Moreover, many people claim to know Egyptians carrying visas issued abroad who were permitted to enter Saudi Arabia earlier this year. So why is there now such a fuss?
"It seems that the number of pilgrims [visiting Saudi Arabia] has exceeded the quota, and the Saudi authorities consequently blamed it on the haphazard issuance of visas," offered lawyer Assad Khattab, who is representing one of the defendants.
No one who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly about the visa matter contested Saudi Arabia's right to issue the regulations it sees fit to better manage the pilgrimage. However, as travel agencies face the prospect of defending themselves in court, many questions remain unanswered. Were any of the visas in question forged? If the visas were authentic, why did Saudi embassies in Berlin, Vienna and Kano sell visas to Egyptian travel agencies if doing so contravenes Saudi regulations? And, have there been any local regulations that companies violated by obtaining hajj visas abroad?
Investigations are still under way, but a report by the Saudi consulate in Egypt claims that the visas are authentic, despite earlier claims by the Saudi consul in Berlin, Elwi Said Elwi, who said that they were "counterfeit." Elwi had earlier told Al-Ahram newspaper that the visas in question "may appear authentic, but are not listed in the official records of the consulate." Following the release of the report, the consul, however, refused to confirm whether the official stamp was stolen from the consulate in Berlin and used in the issuance of visas.
"Local travel agencies, at any rate, should not be accused of forgery as long as the visas are authentic and issued by a Saudi consulate," Khattab argued.
Farouk Abul-Ezz, who has been detained on charges of fraud and forgery for brokering visas from Berlin, is bitter. Abul-Ezz, however, did not actually purchase the visas from Germany, which raises the question as to how he could be sure that the visas were not forged.
"I depended on travel agencies which sent the visas to the Saudi consulate for tests," Abul-Ezz explained to the Weekly. "The visas were authentic, I was told. The agencies I dealt with are all well- known companies that would not jeopardise their reputation," he said.
Abul-Ezz feels that he was treated unfairly, in particular by what he characterised as the "biased press coverage." "There is nothing wrong with the visas and there were no regulations -- at any rate, ones that were announced -- prohibiting the obtaining of visas abroad," Abul-Ezz maintained. "Why, then, should we be arrested and treated like criminals when it was the Saudi consulate, not us, who violated their country's regulations? Why should we be blamed if the visas were not officially recorded at Berlin's consulate or if a stamp was stolen?" Abul-Ezz exclaimed angrily. "The local press has been attacking us mercilessly without any objectivity. Reputations and Egyptian businesses are at stake here," he added.
Meanwhile, the would-be pilgrims must contend not only with disappointment but the challenge of obtaining refunds for their visas and trips. "It is so frustrating," said one of the prospective pilgrims who asked that his name be withheld. "I obtained two visas from a well-known businessman for my wife and I at a cost of LE10,000. I knew that the visas were issued in Berlin, but I was told that there was nothing wrong with that." He discovered otherwise, however, at Cairo airport. "I was so infuriated," he recalled. "I pleaded with authorities to let me take the risk and go. I must get my money back and I will not give up until it is returned."
For their "imported" visas, and in some cases plane tickets and accommodations, prospective pilgrims paid between LE5,000 and LE20,000. Most agencies have indicated that they will refund the pilgrims money in full. "Many of them have done so already, " Khattab said.
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