Rogue travel agents turning Haj pilgrimage into a disaster zone, says MP
Mar 26 2009 By Jonathan Walker
British Muslims making pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia are being ripped off by “rogue travel agents”, a Birmingham MP has warned.
Roger Godsiff (Lab, Sparkbrook & Small Heath) called for more safeguards to ensure travellers who paid thousands of pounds to visit Mecca received what they paid for.
Speaking in the House of Commons, he urged the Government to change the law so that every travel agent had to join the Association of British Travel Agents, the official trade body.
The association enforced standards of honesty and competence, but at the moment anyone could offer travel services without being a member, he said.
Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, is an obligation that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every Muslim, provided they are fit enough to do so and can afford it.
More than 1.7 million Muslims take part every year, including 150,000 from the UK.
But Mr Godsiff told MPs: “For some British Muslims, however, the whole experience turns into an expensive disaster, due to the activities of rogue travel operators, who either fraudulently take money from clients and then disappear, or promise a five-star package which turns out to be nothing of the kind.
“Sadly, many of the people who have been ripped off by these rogue travel agents were my constituents.”
For example, he said, one constituent had paid £4,500 for his parents to make the pilgrimage, but the travel agent vanished without arranging a flight, taking the money, and the couple’s passports.
Another family had paid £10,000, and their flights and bookings never materialised.
Mr Godsiff said the Foreign Office had worked with organisations such as the Association of British Haj Pilgrims to try to help pilgrims, and Birmingham’s trading standards department had tried to assist victims of rogue travel operators.
But greater safeguards were needed to stop travel agents exploiting customers, he said.
“The Association of British Travel Agents is a trade organisation, and while the organisation offers a degree of protection for customers who are members of ABTA and go bust, there is no obligation for travel agents to be members of this organisation,” he added.
Flights which were booked as part of a package holiday were covered by the Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing scheme, managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, he said.
But pilgrims travellers were often unaware that scheduled airline flights were not covered if they were bought separately from the accommodation.
“Only when pilgrims return to the United Kingdom are they in a position to complain and very often by then the rogue travel operator has either ceased trading or has just disappeared.”
Claire Ward, a government whip, said ministers were preparing a publicity campaign to ensure pilgrims knew their legal rights if a travel agent failed to provide the services agreed.
