Association of British Hujjaj (pilgrims) ABH UK, a National charity working for the well being and welfare of British Hajj/Umrah pilgrims welcome the initiative taken by the Birmingham Trading Standards to combat the worsening issue of the exploitation of pilgrims by visiting and raiding offices and premises of Hajj/Umrah travel and tour operators to ensure their compliance with UK travel and tour legislation. They have successfully prosecuted a number of unscrupulous travel and tour operators after receiving complaints from distressed pilgrims.
Lord Ahmed of Rotherham, Patron of ABH while commending the efforts made by Birmingham Trading Standards called upon concerned government departments and trading standards from around the country to take the plight of vulnerable Hajj/Umrah travellers seriously and make every effort to implement the rule of law. He also urged the community that if they are victims of exploitation and malpractice at the hands of unscrupulous and rogue travel and tour operators than they must not suffer in silence and report it to the concerned authorities.
Every year over 125,000 British citizens from the Muslim community travel to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj/Umrah pilgrimage. Many of these travellers who are old aged, sick and disabled have been suffering hardship, mental anguish and financial exploitation for many years due to the violation of package travel and tour legislation in the UK. These vulnerable travellers are being exploited by being charged extortionate prices for their travel packages and it is an insult to injury that a large number of tour operators do not provide quality of service, i.e., accommodation, transport and other amenities during their stay in Saudi Arabia as promised by them in UK.
This issue is affecting over 2 million of the Muslim population throughout the UK however, it is highly regrettable that concerned authorities and departments from various parts of the country have failed to take any decisive action to help eradicate the malpractices and violation of legislation to help and protect these vulnerable travellers in their area.
